Miljøudvidede

Miljøudvidede, literally meaning "environmentally extended," is a term used in environmental economics to describe approaches that expand standard economic accounting to incorporate environmental dimensions. The idea is to attach environmental indicators—such as emissions, resource use, and ecological stress—to economic activities, enabling a fuller assessment of the environmental consequences of production and consumption.

A common form of the concept is environmentally extended input-output analysis (EEIO). In EEIO, environmental intensities are linked to sectors in input-output tables, allowing researchers and policymakers to estimate direct and indirect environmental burdens across entire economies or supply chains. The method can combine traditional economic data with life cycle assessment results to produce measures like a sector’s or a product’s carbon footprint or overall environmental pressure.

Methodologically, miljørelevation involves assigning environmental data to economic activities, aggregating effects through the interdependencies captured in input-output frameworks, and sometimes integrating alternative data sources for more detail. The resulting indicators help reveal how consumption patterns or policy changes ripple through production networks, including indirect effects that are not visible in classic, single-sector analyses.

Applications of miljørelevede analyses include national footprint studies, policy evaluation (for example, to assess the environmental impact of proposed regulations or taxes), corporate sustainability reporting, and product-level life cycle assessments linked to economic activity. They support decision-making by providing a systemic view of environmental performance across sectors and stages of the value chain.

Limitations include data availability and quality, system boundary definitions, and potential aggregation losses. Results depend on the chosen scope, data sources, and assumptions about technology and trade. Despite these caveats, miljørelevede approaches remain a widely used tool for assessing the environmental implications of economic activity.