Abstract
Necessity of local actions for the prevention of global warming has become widely recognized. In Japan, a number of local governments have already started to prepare programs to restrain the increase of energy consumption and stabilize the associated CO2 emission in their respective regions. But today, any regions can not be economically independent from the outside. Through the consumption of imported goods and services, their economic activities are to a large extent supported by the outside regions. In analyzing energy consumption on the local level, therefore, not only direct but also “indirect” consumption of environmental resources must be taken into account. Based on the conventional input-output model, this study explores the energy accounting method to take into account such indirect form of energy and other resource use. Here, special consideration is given to the following points: (i) methodological improvement for the treatment of imported goods and services, (ii) implications of the energy used in the transportation sector for the production in the other sectors, (iii) sharing of the responsibilities for the CO2 emission between direct and indirect energy users.
