Constructing a Network of the Social-economic Consumption System of China Using Extended Energy Analysis

Dai, J. & Fath, B.D. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9440-6842 (2012). Constructing a Network of the Social-economic Consumption System of China Using Extended Energy Analysis. IIASA Interim Report. IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria: IR-12-002

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Abstract

The prominent conflict between consumption and environmental resources is acknowledged as a significant force in affecting the social-ecological community balance. The whole process of resource allocation, utilization, efficiency and outcome are crucial clues in uncovering the structural and functional characteristics in complex consuming systems. Herein, networks provide a systems-oriented modelling technique for examining the structure as well as the flow of materials or energy from an input-output perspective. Meanwhile, extended exergy, the only currently available thermodynamic based metric for social-economic environmental impacts associated with energy consumption, manpower, and monetary operation as well as environmental emission, is an extension of the labor theory of value and a possible sustainability metric. The core purpose of this research is to construct a network of the consumption system of China using extended exergy analysis to explain the interrelationship among different sectors within a thermodynamic metric. Therefore, we first make a database of Chinese consumption using extended exergy accounting. Data are available for 2007, which can be divided into seven sectors based on the reclassification of the regularly published 42-sector Input-Output Table, namely, (1) Agriculture, (2) Extraction, (3) Conversion, (4) Industry, (5) Transportation, (6) Tertiary, and (7) Domestic sectors. Then we construct an extended exergy network to gain insight into the thermodynamic distribution within sectoral criterion. Lastly, the network results explain how China's social metabolism is maintained by a large quantity of energy, resources, and labor.

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