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Commodity Footprints is a free interactive tool that can be used to visualize and interact with data on the global environmental impacts of UK consumption and production. The environmental impacts and risks associated with over 160 agricultural commodities across about 200 producer countries can be linked with the consumption activities of 44 countries and 5 “rest of world” regions.
The experimental statistic has been updated today. Following its initial release this time last year, this is the first annual update of the data.
A new experimental statistic has been released that acts as an indicator of the global environmental impacts of UK consumption. Alongside is the commodityfootprints.earth dashboard that 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. The dashboard is provided free of charge as a resource for any user to explore the sources and sinks of environmental impact and risk associated with commodity supply chains.
For any enquiries about the tool, please contact [email protected]
This is the culmination of a multi-year development process commissioned by Defra, with JNCC (Joint Nature Conservancy Council) leading on its development and analyses undertaken by SEI York’s Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) group.
The brief was to calculate the agricultural commodity production required to produce goods and services for UK demand and the associated environmental impacts (domestic and abroad): in short, the UK’s material footprint. The team assessed the environmental impact of the production and use of 160 agricultural commodities. The impacts measured included effects on land use, water, deforestation and biodiversity risk. The statistic was developed to monitoring the overseas impacts of UK consumption, but the results are relevant for global analyses of production and consumption activities.
The dashboard makes the full global data set available for anyone to visualize and interrogate. The data can be broken down by country for about 200 producing countries and 44 consuming countries. For countries without an individual dataset, the data can also be broken down into five “rest of world” regions.
The dashboard can be used to show the global impact the UK had on tropical deforestation in 2017.
The global impact the UK had on tropical deforestation in 2017. Graphic: commodityfootprints.earth
It can dig into details to show the specific impact from the UK’s soybean consumption.
The global impact the UK’s soybean consumption had on tropical deforestation in 2017. Graphic: commodityfootprints.earth
It can also compare the UK’s contribution to tropical deforestation (ha) with that of other countries.
The UK’s contribution to tropical deforestation (ha) in 2017 compared with that of other countries. Image: commodityfootprints.earth
This talk explores the indicator’s results and key drivers behind its creation and explains how the dashboard can be used.
This work marks a world first as a government commissioned indicator for a developed country linking the consumption in its economy to a broad range of environmental impacts including deforestation.
For SEI York’s Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) group, it is the culmination of many years of work. Significantly, the dashboard marks the first time that SEI,s Input-Output Trade Analysis (IOTA) model’s outputs have been openly and widely accessible.
Dashboard development was supported by the UK Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, the UK Research and Innovation’s Global Challenges Research Fund through the GCRF Trade Hub (project ES/S008160/1) and Trase.
Also key to the creation of the dashboard was Bernardo Loureiro, data scientist at Global Canopy.
Feature / The tool's creators explain how the free interactive dashboard can be used to visualize data on the global environmental impacts of consumption and production.
Journal article / Consumer countries and blocs are developing laws to tackle deforestation linked to commodity imports but they are insufficient to address this global issue.
Other publication / Whether trade is "good" or "bad" for our societies and the environment has been a topic of ongoing debate. This brief is a simple overview of the costs.
Design and development by Soapbox.
