Technical documentation for an experimental statistic estimating the global environmental impacts of UK consumption

The release of the experimental statistic and associated dashboard commodityfootprints.earth is the culmination of a multi-year development process funded by Defra, with JNCC (Joint Nature Conservancy Council) leading on its development and analyses undertaken by SEI. This report describes the methodologies used to produce the experimental statistic. It includes:

• an overview of the modelling framework, which is based on hybrid multi-regional input-output modelling using data from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and Exiobase, which are combined within the Stockholm Environment Institute’s IOTA (Input-Output Trade Analysis) framework;
• an explanation of the treatment of commodities that differed in methods and data from the other commodities analyzed, namely cattle and timber;
• an explanation of the data sources used for each impact metric type, how they were integrated into the modelling, and any known data update plans.

The dashboard published alongside the statistic allows users to visualize and interact with the data, for example by breaking it down to see results for specific commodities and producer countries of interest.

This publication is an update to one of the UK Biodiversity Indicators, and it is planned that results will also feed into the 2022 Outcome Indicator Reporting cycle for the 25 Year Environment Plan.

Additional support towards developing the dashboard was also provided by Trase and the GCRF Trade Hub.