The topic of the year or the topic of the upcoming many years, is circular economy. It is great a concept. It aims to minimize waste and tries to maximize the make out of our resources. Circular economy is also very broad concept. Many things can fall under its umbrella. This is good for academia as it stimulates the research. On the other hand, when it comes to practice, the concept can get difficult. The practitioners or authorities who need to come up with policies or road maps can struggle to capture the essence of the concept or make targets. So, one can ask the question “ How can we kick start the circular economy agenda in our region?”.
This challenge was the starting point of CIRCUMAT project. With our project, we want to create a link between the circular economy and the practitioners so that they can kick start their agenda and/or we can ease their decision making. The project consists of four phases and deliverables, including an online calculation tool -REAT- that performs environmentally extended input output analysis in the subnational regions (NUTS 2) of Europe. REAT is a modified (forked) version of Rama-Scene EIT Raw Materials project. REAT focuses on NUTS2 level classification as opposed to Rama-Scene country level analysis tool. More information about the Rama-Scene project can be found in the other resources tab.
CIRCUMAT introduces the fundamentals of environmental and economic analyses to the
regional practitioners and gives them the eye openers to better understand their region,
the sectors in order to assess the priority and the potential for ‘circular’ policies.
REAT performs economic and environmental calculations according to the Leontief model in the NUT2 regions of Europe. REAT does three main analyses: the hot spot analysis to identify the key sectors where selected environmental or economic indicators mostly occur, the contribution analysis to understand the whole supply chain and the key consumption items that contribute to the total value of the selected indicator and finally the scenario analysis that the users can simulate the effects of circular consumption on the selected indicators by modifying the final consumption values.
The data behind the CIRCUMAT tool of REAT is available and can be downloaded from here (password:circumat).
The data for REAT is from two main sources: from EXIOBASE – A Multi-Regional Environmentally Extended Input Output databases and from EUROSTAT- The statistical office of the European Union.
EXIOBASE can be downloaded here . The year 2011 of EXIOBASE, product by product monetary input output table is used for calculations.
From EUROSTAT, in the NUTS2 level detail, income values, gross capital formation, agriculture and sectoral employment numbers are collected for the NUTS2 regions in Europe for the year 2011 and used to regionalize the national values.
In order to download bulk data from EUROSTAT (over 250 regions), python code is constructed and this code is available
here.
The data collected from EUROSTAT in the regional scale for 2011 includes
blank entries where data are not present. Thus, to approximate these missing
data, we used the national averages or data deducted from the adjacent years if available.
HOTSPOT ANALYSIS BY REAT
The production view (Hotspot Analysis) calculates the economic and environmental indicators of specific manufacturing activity(s) in the region. The hotspot analysis identifies the key sectors where the selected indicator mostly occurs.
Contribution Analysis by REAT
The consumption view (Contribution Analysis) calculates the impacts generated along the entire supply chain for the final demand of specific manufacturing activity(s) in the region. Contribution analysis identifies the key consumption items that contribute to the selected indicator.
Scenario Analysis by REAT
The scenario analysis defines a scenario to calculate the effects of changes in the final demand. The scenario analysis can identify the effects of circular consumption in the region on the environmental and economic indicators.
NUTS classification is a single, coherent system for dividing up the EU's territory in order to produce regional statistics for the Community. NUTS2 maps
Additionally many information and useful codes, including the shape files, can be downloaded from here
The list of the NUTS2 regions covered in the REAT can be downloaded from
here
.For the user selected NUT2 region, the REAT can perform three main analytical calculations.
The regionalization of the national input output tables in REAT includes several assumptions, including
The sectoral concordance: The data from EUROSTAT in NACE sectors are matched by the sectors in EXIOBASE using predetermined concordance matrices.
The regional output values: Regional employment numbers are used to approximate the regional economic outputs and value added of the sectors. The consumption values: Regional income, gross capital formation and employment data are used to approximate the regional final demand of the sectors.
The missing sources: National accounts or averages are taken as the base-lines whenever data are missing.
No cross hauling: Cross hauling is not allowed during the regionalization, in other words, if the region is exporter, it is not an importer; and vice versa.
Unbalances IO tables: Final IO table is not neccesarily balanced. Interested users
can use RAS algorithm to re-balance the IO tables.