The additional precision provided by regional-specific data: the identification of fuel-use and pollution generation coefficients in the Jersey economy

摘要

A debate is currently ongoing in the UK regarding the need to collect and reportdata at the regional level. One specific area of this debate is the extent towhich region-specific economic and environmental data are required to carry outanalyses of devolved sustainability policy issues. This paper uses the Jerseyeconomy as a case study to assess the added precision from using good-qualityregion-specific data compared with adjusted national UK data. It is found that,due to differences in polluting technology between Jersey and the UK, estimatesbased on national emissions intensities produce results that are misleading interms of both absolute pollution levels and the relative contribution ofdifferent activities to total emissions in the economy. While Jersey may beregarded as atypical in many ways relative to other UK regions, it is arguedthat, the results show that regional environmental accounts must reflectdifferences in polluting technology in different locations. Moreover, accountingfor differences in polluting technology is even more crucial in light of currentpolicy interest in tracing the actual resource use and pollution generation inany one region's or country's imports to measure the global impact, orecological footprint, of economic activity.