An integrated assessment of energy and resource efficiency trends at regional, national, and international scales

Resource consumption is the backbone of the economic activities, while human creativity changes the directions and intensities of resource consumption. As a way to investigate the feasibility of sustainable development, changes in efficiencies of energy and resource use were examined at three different scales of the human economy from the 1960s to the 1990s using a biophysical approach.; Embodied energy use for the economy and municipal solid waste (MSW) management of Onondaga County, New York were examined with simulation and analysis of the legal structure for the local scale. Patterns of efficiencies of energy and mineral use of the US economy were assessed for the national scale. Trends of energy use, agricultural efficiencies, environmental impacts, and ecological footprints of Costa Rica, South Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands and the United States were analyzed for the international scale.; The analysis indicated that the increasing energy efficiency of Onondaga County was due to the declining energy-intensive manufacturing industries, and the increasing wholesale and retail sale industries in the county. Most of the current MSW policies have contributed significantly to energy savings. The national scale analysis determined that the improving energy efficiency of the US economy has been driven by increased international trade. The energy savings, which could have occurred from technological developments, have been offset by increasing per capita use. Further, only 4 out of 17 minerals were found to meet the criteria of dematerialization.; Total energy consumption, analyzed with quality adjustment, has increased for the five countries. The efficiency of turning energy into agricultural production and gross domestic product has declined for all countries except for the US. There is a linear relationship between resource use and economic and agricultural production over all countries, suggesting biophysical constraints to sustainable development. Per capita ecological footprints have decreased in Costa Rica, Mexico, and the United States, while national ecological footprints have remained constant except for Korea.; While the systematic MSW management has contributed to the improving energy efficiencies of the local economy, the increasing per capita consumption and population increase along with increasing environmental impacts have made the idea of sustainable development seemingly unfeasible.