Material Flow Accounts and Driving Factors of Economic Growth in the Philippines

Abstract

Summary This study looks into material flow trends in the Philippines from 1985 to 2010 by utilizing the methodology of economy‐wide material flow analysis. Using domestic data sources, this study presents disaggregated annual material flow trends in terms of four major material categories, namely: biomass; fossil energy carriers; ores and industrial minerals; and construction minerals. The results describe in detail the growth of material flows in a high‐density country at the onset of its development and reveal the shift of material consumption from dominance of renewable materials in 1985 to nonrenewable materials in 2010. IPAT analysis shows that the increase in material consumption was driven by population growth from 1985 to 1998 and by growth in affluence from 1999 to 2010. However, high inequalities amidst the growing economy suggest that a small group of wealthy people have influenced the acceleration of material consumption in the Philippines. The results of this research are intended to provide a thorough analysis of the processes occurring in Philippine economic growth in order to assist in tackling implications for the important issue of sustainable resource management.

The weight of islands: Leveraging Grenada's material stocks to adapt to climate change

“…It is only recently that industrial ecologists have begun to systematically study resource throughput of island nations. For example, economy‐wide material flow accounts have been established for Iceland and Trinidad and Tobago (Krausmann, Richter, & Eisenmenger, ), the Philippines (Martinico‐Perez, Fishman, Okuoka, & Tanikawa, ), Cuba (Eisenhut, ), and the Caribbean, aggregated with Latin America (West & Schandl, ); waste and emission patterns have been studied for Hawaii (Eckelman & Chertow, ; Houseknecht, ) and Malta, Spain (Conrad & Cassar, ); and a study on Jamaica focused on biomass flows (Okoli, ). Material stocks have been studied on a local scale for two islands: Trinket, Nicobar Islands (Singh, Grünbühel, Schandl, & Schulz, ) and Samothraki, Greece (Noll et al., submitted).…”

“…While other studies have used statistical distributions (i.e., Fishman et al. ; Martinico‐Perez, Fishman, Okuoka, & Tanikawa, ; Pauliuk et al. ) or fixed ratios (i.e., Wiedenhofer et al, ; Nguyen ) to model outflows, these modeling approaches cannot account for a singular event of acute loss of stock like the hurricane in 2004.…”

A Comprehensive Material Flow Account for Lao PDR to Inform Environmental and Sustainability Policy

“…In other developing countries, MFA has also been adopted using both national and international statistics to show trends in resource use and resource efficiency, but again focusing mainly on input indicators (Martinico‐Perez et al. ; Maung et al. ; Raupova et al.…”

“…This has also encouraged numerous scholarly studies in the field of industrial ecology (IE) and enabled robust MFA measures for China (Mathews and Tan 2016;Wang et al 2012;Huang et al 2008;Li et al 2010;Chen and Qiao 2001). In other developing countries, MFA has also been adopted using both national and international statistics to show trends in resource use and resource efficiency, but again focusing mainly on input indicators (Martinico-Perez et al 2017;Maung et al 2015;Raupova et al 2014;Russi et al 2008;Wang et al 2012). The output side of MFA has largely been ignored.…”

Winners of the 2017 Graedel Prizes: The Journal of Industrial Ecology Best Paper Prizes

“…; Martinico‐Perez et al. ); and three made contributions to life cycle assessment (LCA) and/or environmentally extended input‐output analysis (Majeau‐Bettez et al. ; Vadenbo et al.…”