Supply Constraint from Earthquakes in Japan in Input-Output Analysis.

Disasters often cause exogenous flow damage (i.e., the [hypothetical] difference in economic scale with and without a disaster in a certain period) to production ("supply constraint").

Clarifying Demographic Impacts on Embodied and Materially Retained Carbon toward Climate Change Mitigation.

Modern lifestyles demand a number of products derived from petroleum-based sources that eventually cause carbon emissions. The quantification of lifestyle and household consumption impacts upon carbon emissions from both the embodied CO (EC) and materially retained carbon (MRC) viewpoints is critical to deriving amelioration policies and meeting emission reduction goals. This study, for the first time, details a methodology to estimate both EC and MRC for Japan, focusing on petrochemicals and woody products utilizing the time series input-output table, physical value tables and the national survey of family income and expenditure, leveraging time series input-output-based material flow analysis (IO-MFA), and structural decomposition analysis (SDA).

Impacts of productive efficiency improvement in the global metal industry on CO emissions.

This study focused on 14 metal sectors of the 40 countries that are the largest CO emitters and developed a new analysis framework to estimate CO reduction potentials based on the Greenhouse Gas Protocol through efficiency improvement of the inefficient metal sector of these countries. The analysis framework was developed by combining a multi-regional input-output database with data envelopment analysis. We found that there were 20 inefficient countries in the basic iron and steel sector, which is the largest CO emitter among 14 metal sectors, and their efficiency improvements can contribute to reducing CO emissions by 354 Mt, accounting for 1.

Decomposition approach of the nitrogen generation process: empirical study on the Shimabara Peninsula in Japan.

Groundwater nitrate pollution is one of the most prevalent water-related environmental problems worldwide. The objective of this study is to identify the determinants of nitrogen pollutant changes with a focus on the nitrogen generation process. The novelty of our research framework is to cost-effectively identify the factors involved in nitrogen pollutant generation using public data.

Economic development and multiple air pollutant emissions from the industrial sector.

This study analyzed the relationship between economic growth and emissions of eight environmental air pollutants (carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), nitrogen oxide (NOx), sulfur oxide (SOx), carbon monoxide (CO), non-methane volatile organic compound (NMVOC), and ammonia (NH3)) in 39 countries from 1995 to 2009. We tested an environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis for 16 individual industry sectors and for the total industrial sector. The results clarified that at least ten individual industries do not have an EKC relationship in eight air pollutants even though this relationship was observed in the country and total industrial sector level data.

Environmental efficiency of energy, materials, and emissions.

This study estimates the environmental efficiency of international listed firms in 10 worldwide sectors from 2007 to 2013 by applying an order-m method, a non-parametric approach based on free disposal hull with subsampling bootstrapping. Using a conventional output of gross profit and two conventional inputs of labor and capital, this study examines the order-m environmental efficiency accounting for the presence of each of 10 undesirable inputs/outputs and measures the shadow prices of each undesirable input and output. The results show that there is greater potential for the reduction of undesirable inputs rather than bad outputs.

Determinants of eco-efficiency in the Chinese industrial sector.

This study measures productive inefficiency within the context of multi-environmental pollution (eco-efficiency) in the Chinese industrial sector. The weighted Russell directional distance model is applied to measure eco-efficiency using production technology. The objective is to clarify how external factors affect eco-efficiency.

The true cost of greenhouse gas emissions: analysis of 1,000 global companies.

This study elucidated the shadow price of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for 1,024 international companies worldwide that were surveyed from 15 industries in 37 major countries. Our results indicate that the shadow price of GHG at the firm level is much higher than indicated in previous studies. The higher shadow price was found in this study as a result of the use of Scope 3 GHG emissions data.

Are firms' voluntary environmental management activities beneficial for the environment and business? An empirical study focusing on Japanese manufacturing firms.

In this paper, to clarify whether a firm's voluntary approach to environmental protection is beneficial for both the environment and business, we analyze whether a firm's voluntary implementation of an environmental management system (EMS) simultaneously reduces its environmental impacts and improves its productivity. Using data on Japanese manufacturing firms for 2002-2008, we find empirical support for the view that the implementation of an EMS simultaneously reduces environmental impacts and improves productivity, and that a reduction in environmental impacts also improves productivity. However, in the context of this relationship, the direct effect of implementing an EMS on productivity is conditional.