Methodology and Indicators of Economy‐wide Material Flow Accounting

TLDR

The paper reviews the current state of economy‑wide material flow accounting. The authors outline the MFA framework, its key assumptions and indicators, and evaluate data reliability and uncertainty across multinational compilations, highlighting inconsistencies and variations. The study finds MFA methods mature, with database variation 10–20% and cross‑country correlation R²≈0.95, supporting the use of MFA indicators alongside traditional data for sustainable policy discussions.

Abstract

This contribution presents the state of the art of economy-wide material flow accounting. Starting from a brief recollection of the intellectual and policy history of this approach, we outline system definition, key methodological assumptions, and derived indicators. The next section makes an effort to establish data reliability and uncertainty for a number of existing multinational (European and global) material flow accounting (MFA) data compilations and discusses sources of inconsistencies and variations for some indicators and trends. The results show that the methodology has reached a certain maturity: Coefficients of variation between databases lie in the range of 10% to 20%, and correlations between databases across countries amount to an average R2 of 0.95. After discussing some of the research frontiers for further methodological development, we conclude that the material flow accounting framework and the data generated have reached a maturity that warrants material flow indicators to complement traditional economic and demographic information in providing a sound basis for discussing national and international policies for sustainable resource use.