Application of the Structural Decomposition Analysis to assess the indirect energy consumption and air emission changes related to Italian households consumption

The design of sustainable production and consumption strategies and the assessment of implemented actions require to identify the driving forces that influence the trend of energy consumption and environmental impacts. For this purpose, the Structural Decomposition Analysis (SDA) was developed as a suitable methodology to analyse the driving forces of the changes in economic, energy and environmental indicators. The paper presents one of the first Italian studies that apply an energy and environmental extended input-output model, opportunely shaped to the examined context, combined with SDA. In detail, it aims at: (1) investigating the energy use and the air emissions arisen from the productive sectors to meet the household final demand in the period 1999-2006; (2) identifying the sources of variations in energy and environmental indicators; and (3) identifying which economic sectors are the most relevant sources of variation and must to be taken into account in the definition of sustainable production and consumption strategies. As sources of changes, the authors investigate: energy and emission intensity effects, Leontief effect and final demand effect. Outcomes point out that the increase of the final consumptions often nullifies the energy and environmental benefits due to the improvement of the eco-efficiency and to the introduction of innovative technologies of production. The sector level analysis shows that "tertiary" and "electricity, gas and vapour" result the highest Italian consuming sectors of energy. Thus they should be focused for energy saving strategies. "Agriculture, hunting and sylviculture" and "road transports", that are primarily sectors affecting air emissions, should be taken into account for the reduction of environmental impacts. Results highlight that the current dichotomy of final demand growth and improvement of eco-efficiency represents a key problem that needs to be addressed. Therefore the presented study can aid to define suitable oriented strategies for the energy and environmental impact reduction. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.