Global resources use and pollution : Volume 2: Country factsheets

In the recent decades, the increase in the world population, the economic expansion and the globalization of the economy have led to a dramatic growth in the use of some natural resources and in the levels of pollution. These trends have coincided with a growing concern about some critical questions for the future of humankind such as resource scarcity and depletion, climate change, environmental degradation, the limits of growth or the inequalities in the access to natural resources across countries. This Pocketbook presents a series of indicators describing the evolution of the use of natural resources and the emission of air pollutants around the world, in relation to production, consumption and trade activities. Based on different analysis derived from the World Input-Output Database (WIOD), this publication includes information on 6 environmental dimensions: land use, material extraction, water use, and emission of acid substances, greenhouse gases and ozone precursors. The time frame covered is the period between 1995 and 2008, and the geographical scope includes the EU-27 Member States, Brazil, China, India, Japan, Russia, the United States of America and the Rest of the World.