Per capita resource consumption and resource carrying capacity: A comparison of the sustainability of 17 mainstream countries

Sustainability involves aspects of society, economy, and environment. Environmental sustainability is one of the most important factors to support global energy consumption and to absorb the pollution generated by human activities. Because emergy can be used to measure both money and energy flows in the same units, it provides a way to measure the real wealth of both natural and economic systems and the impact of human activities on these systems. A comparison of the carrying capacity of natural resources with the consumption of these resources at regional or global scales can provide a clear image of sustainability. To assess sustainability around the world, we used the National Environmental Accounting Database data for 102 nations (2008 data) to evaluate the resource consumption by 17 mainstream countries. Our results revealed that most of the countries consumed too many resources, thereby decreasing the overall global sustainability of the natural resources that sustain human society. Our results confirm previous predictions that to ensure long-term sustainability, it will be necessary to control population increases, reduce emergy consumption, and promote emergy efficiency.

► The values of the per capita emergy consumption can indicate the sustainability of a nation.
► The average ratio of economic to natural emergy for 102 nations was 0.96 in 2008.
► In 2008, the global per capita emergy consumption was 1.96 times the natural carrying capacity.
► Humanity’s average per capita free emergy is 7.12 times the available renewable emergy.