NA/77 Material flows, energy use and the structure of the economy

Konijn, Paul J.A., Sake de Boer and Jan van Dalen (1995).Many environmental problems are connected to production and use of materials and energy. It would therefore be desirable to have an information system that gives consistent, complete and detailed information on material and energy flows. Such a system would even be more useful if it could be connected directly to economic data. This paper presents such a system which is illustrated with an application to the flows of iron/steel and energy. An input-output table is presented that describes the production processes in the ferrous metal branch entirely in physical units. Subsequently, steel contents of final products are calculated, and an analysis is made of the consequences of a new technology in the basic steel industry on total energy use in the economy.