117
© The Author(s) 2016
R. Clift, A. Druckman (eds.), Taking Stock of Industrial Ecology,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-20571-7_6
Chapter 6
A Socio-economic Metabolism Approach
to Sustainable Development and Climate
Change Mitigation
Timothy M. Baynes and Daniel B. Müller
Abstract Humanity faces three large challenges over the coming decades: urbanisation and industrialisation in developing countries at unprecedented levels; concurrently, we need to mitigate against dangerous climate change and we need to
consider fi nite global boundaries regarding resource depletion.
Responses to these challenges as well as models that inform strategies are fragmented. The current mainstream framework for measuring and modelling climate
change mitigation focuses on the fl ows of energy and emissions and is insuffi cient
for simultaneously addressing the material and infrastructure needs of development.
The models’ inability to adequately represent the multiple interactions between
infrastructure stocks, materials, energy and emissions results in notable limitations.
They are inadequate: (1) to identify physically realistic (mass balance consistent)
mitigation pathways, (2) to anticipate potentially relevant co-benefi ts and risks and
thus (3) to identify the most effective strategies for linking targets for climate change
mitigation with goals for sustainable development, including poverty eradication,
infrastructure investment and mitigation of resource depletion.
This chapter demonstrates that a metabolic approach has the potential to address
urbanisation and infrastructure development and energy use and climate change, as
well as resource use, and therefore to provide a framework for integrating climate
change mitigation and sustainable development from a physical perspective.
Metabolic approaches can represent the cross-sector coupling between material and
energy use and waste (emissions) and also stocks in the anthroposphere (including
fi xed assets, public and private infrastructure). Stocks moderate the supply of services such as shelter, communication, mobility, health and safety and employment
opportunities.
The development of anthropogenic stocks defi nes boundary conditions for industrial activity over time. By 2050 there will be an additional three billion urban
T. M. Baynes (*)
CSIRO Land and Water , PO Box 52 , North Ryde , NSW 1670 , Australia
e-mail: Tim.Baynes@csiro.au
D. B. Müller
NTNU: Norges Teknisk-naturvitenskapelige Universitet , Trondheim , Norway
© The Author(s) 2016
R. Clift, A. Druckman (eds.), Taking Stock of Industrial Ecology,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-20571-7_6
Chapter 6
A Socio-economic Metabolism Approach
to Sustainable Development and Climate
Change Mitigation
Timothy M. Baynes and Daniel B. Müller
Abstract Humanity faces three large challenges over the coming decades: urbanisation and industrialisation in developing countries at unprecedented levels; concurrently, we need to mitigate against dangerous climate change and we need to
consider fi nite global boundaries regarding resource depletion.
Responses to these challenges as well as models that inform strategies are fragmented. The current mainstream framework for measuring and modelling climate
change mitigation focuses on the fl ows of energy and emissions and is insuffi cient
for simultaneously addressing the material and infrastructure needs of development.
The models’ inability to adequately represent the multiple interactions between
infrastructure stocks, materials, energy and emissions results in notable limitations.
They are inadequate: (1) to identify physically realistic (mass balance consistent)
mitigation pathways, (2) to anticipate potentially relevant co-benefi ts and risks and
thus (3) to identify the most effective strategies for linking targets for climate change
mitigation with goals for sustainable development, including poverty eradication,
infrastructure investment and mitigation of resource depletion.
This chapter demonstrates that a metabolic approach has the potential to address
urbanisation and infrastructure development and energy use and climate change, as
well as resource use, and therefore to provide a framework for integrating climate
change mitigation and sustainable development from a physical perspective.
Metabolic approaches can represent the cross-sector coupling between material and
energy use and waste (emissions) and also stocks in the anthroposphere (including
fi xed assets, public and private infrastructure). Stocks moderate the supply of services such as shelter, communication, mobility, health and safety and employment
opportunities.
The development of anthropogenic stocks defi nes boundary conditions for industrial activity over time. By 2050 there will be an additional three billion urban
T. M. Baynes (*)
CSIRO Land and Water , PO Box 52 , North Ryde , NSW 1670 , Australia
e-mail: Tim.Baynes@csiro.au
D. B. Müller
NTNU: Norges Teknisk-naturvitenskapelige Universitet , Trondheim , Norway