Abstract

Environmental pressure has been approached by many experts as being a result of population, prosperity and technological efficiency. A research project has been set up to develop a model structure for constructing consumption scenarios and determining the energy requirement of the inhabitants of the Netherlands for these scenarios. In the model, consumption is determined by economic growth, demographic changes, sociocultural developments, technological enhancement and policy measures, rather than behaviour related to one specific component of consumption. Because analyses of consumption and implications of specific policy measures require a detailed level of information on expenditures, environmental pressure and their interrelationships, we also considered a detailed level of consumption components. The starting point of the research has been to fit human behaviour within boundaries like time, money and available space. A system of models has been developed, in which several kinds of models are found for consumption, including a central unit. This report gives an overview of the models in this system and the relationships between several models.