Methodology for the Construction of Global Multi-Regional Hybrid Supply and Use Tables for the EXIOBASE v3 Database

This article describes the algorithm that has been developed within the European Union (EU) FP7 project DESIRE for the construction of the EXIOBASE multiregional hybrid supply and use tables (MR-HSUTs) version 3. The tables include 43 countries plus five rest-of-the-world regions and are built for the period 2000-2011. MR-HSUTs are compiled in mixed units, that is, tangible goods in mass units, intangible energy flows in terajoules, and, finally, services in euros. The article summarizes the various steps of the developed procedure, from data collection until the final supply and use tables. It will be shown how several disconnected data sets with varying quality are harmonized so as to build an effective analytical database that can be used for several types of analyses, such as life cycle assessment, total material requirement, material intensity per product service, carbon footprint, and so on.