A multi-regional input–output analysis of energy embodied in international trade of construction goods and services

The construction sector is globally a significant energy consumer and has a particular responsibility to improve its environmental impact as a worldwide sector. Research on energy mitigation in construction has tended to focus on the economic, technological, administrative and community drivers in many countries, but the energy demand trend in the construction sector shows little change in the past and is projected to continue growing under current policies. The aim of this research is to develop alternative insight into this lack of progress from the perspective of globalisation through investigating the energy use embodied in the international trade of construction goods and services. A multi-regional input–output (MRIO) analysis is applied to understand the global consumer countries and their sectors in relation to the energy embodied in the production of their construction goods and services. The energy demands are illustrated by a consumption-based analysis for the worldwide construction sector. The embodied energy of international trade is described at the sectoral level through measuring the sectoral energy export and regional energy import from the sector induced by the final use. Using MRIO tables derived from the World Input–Output Database (WIOD), the results show that there exists great potential for reduction in energy consumption in the construction sector and that a large number of countries increased their dependence on the global construction market over the research period.