A. Relevance and sustainability context
A.1 Policy relevance
Environmental footprints help to uncover the impacts of German consumption that are “hidden” by global trade and the spatial distance to the point of production. They also allow comparisons between countries on a per capita basis. In this sense, specific footprints deliver information on the distribution of specific global environmental burden, in particular to provide quantitative indicators underpinning discussions of responsibility, overconsumption and fair shares. For the German bioeconomy, the driving question is: to what extent is agricultural biomass required for national production and consumption.
The agricultural biomass footprint quantifies how much biomass must be extracted worldwide to cover the German consumption of bioeconomy products. It includes all quantities of agricultural biomass (primary crops, crop residues and grazed biomass) in tonnes used for domestic consumption. These material flows determine the extent of the various environmental impacts associated with them and also form the basis for calculating the land and water footprints.
The indicator is of interest to environmental and agricultural ministries at the federal level. It is a sustainability indicator for the bioeconomy and the green transition.
A.2 Sustainability and / or comparative evaluation options
Different types of comparisons help put the scale of German footprints into perspective. That said, a target range for quantifying sustainable consumption levels requires society-wide discourse, prioritisation, acceptance and decision making, in light of best available scientific evidence. Multiple types of comparisons can be made, including:
- Degree of self-sufficiency by comparing German agricultural biomass production and the agricultural biomass footprint: If the footprint exceeds domestic extraction, Germany is a net importer of agricultural biomass.
- International comparison by comparing the German footprint with the global average or footprints from other countries.
- Comparison with preliminary global safe and just benchmark. Assuming a proportional decrease between resource types, the target corresponds to approximately 2 t biomass (BMK 2020). It has been suggested in the literature as a sustainable limit for keeping global consumption levels within current planetary boundaries (Bringezu 2015). In how far does Germany exceed global average use patterns (that are associated with planetary boundary concerns).
The agricultural biomass footprint can also be calculated for all other countries and the global level with the same database and approach. This ensures international comparability.
B. Data availability
B.1 Stage of development
It is a semi-established / new indicator because while the application to the bioeconomy is new to official monitoring (but established in projects), similar indicators are already published by Destatis and EU monitoring building on UNEP, https://knowledge4policy.ec.europa.eu/bioeconomy/monitoring_en
B.2 Data sources
GLORIA v.60 (https://ielab.info/labs/ielab-gloria) for the MRIO (multi-regional input-output)-based assessment of material flows.
FAOSTAT (https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QCL) for evaluation and update of satellite data in the GLORIA database on agriculture biomass extraction.
Materialkonto (Destatis; https://genesis.destatis.de/datenbank/online/statistic/85131/table/85131-0001/search/s/ZCVDMyVCQ25nZXI=) for evaluation and adjustment of agriculture biomass extraction in Germany.
B.3 Coverage over time and replicability
For the time range 2000-2024, annual data is available. Replicability is possible with GLORIA v.60 database plus some additional sources plus script from GWS. About every to every second year, the underlying GLORIA database is updated. Since the relations don't change significantly that quickly, an update every 2-4 years should be sufficient.
B.4 Coverage across scales and sectors; compatibility
For 164 countries/regions and 120 sectors of the GLORIA v.60 database. Breakdown by crop types and countries/regions (origin of the biomass) is possible (see also the Bioeconomy Monitoring Report 2024).
C. Considerations for operationalization
C.1 Feasibility: Fit for monitoring
The indicator is fit for monitoring. It has been included in different Bioeconomy Monitoring Reports (2024, 2021) and similar indicators are published by Destatis and EU bioeconomy monitoring building on UNEP, https://knowledge4policy.ec.europa.eu/bioeconomy/monitoring_en
C.2 Institutions
GWS
C.3 Future prospects
GWS can update the indicator quite easily once GLORIA database is updated
C.4 Costs, considerations and reproducibility
Information avaiable per request.
C.5 Potential for automation
Semi-automation might be feasible, but considerable expert input will remain necessary.
C.6 Presentation options and breakdown / sub-indicator needs
See the bioeconomy monitoring report (2024) for different presentations and breakdown: by countries (origin of the biomass), crop types and economic sectors.
C.7 Potential for scenario integration
Has already been included in scenarios for the Bioeconomy Monitoring Report (2024).
C.8 Interlinkages and alignment with other monitoring activities
Other indicators such as timber footprint, wild fish footprint and climate footprint are calculated with the same database. The calculation of the agricultural land footprint requires data for the agricultural biomass footprint.
Further Comments:
- Significant differences in results between our MRIO (multi-regional input-output) approach (similar to UNEP) and Destatis figures.
- In the Bioeconomy Monitoring Report we assessed two indicators: the (consumption and investment) footprint (= RMC concept) and the footprint including also material use for exports (= RMI-concept). This can be calculated with the same database and delivers extra information on the effects of the German bioeconomy on exports.
- On behalf of Eurostat the ifeu Institute is currently updating the material flow indicator assessments for the EU. This new assessment will apply the same methods as SYMOBIO/GWS but will be based on a different database (FIGARO + extensions).