ABSTRACT
Based on material flow accounting and related indicators, an indicator, domestic environmental load, is formulated to measure the aggregate environmental pressure of a nation. Combining this indicator with the gross national product, an indicator for environmental efficiency is derived. The domestic environmental load is then decomposed into the rebound effect caused by economic growth and the depressurization effect induced by the efficiency increase. A case study was carried out for the Chinese economy to investigate its domestic environmental load, environmental efficiency and the rebound and depressurization effects. Results show that the environmental efficiency of the Chinese economy increased during the study period with an annual rate of 5.6%, indicating that a certain degree of depressurization was achieved. However, the rebound effect caused by economic growth was much greater than the depressurization effect induced by the efficiency increase,resulting in a considerable increase in the domestic environmental load (the annual growth rate was 3.8%). The Chinese economy is characterized by high environmental pressure and it is hard to achieve absolute depressurization.
