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The uncontrolled socioeconomic development through substantial consumptions and transfers of materials, energy and other natural resources plays a significant effect on the deterioration of the ecological environment. How to quantify these consumptions and transfers has been a difficult issue and attracted many researchers from various disciplines. The purpose of this research aims to reveal the ecological utility of the Australian economic sectors based on embodied energy. The research commences with the development of embodied energy input–output tables of Australia and then adopts the ecological network analysis (ENA) principles combined with the hypothetical extraction method (HEM) to investigate the interaction of sectoral embodied energy the economic system. A utility value matrix is used to determine the ecological relationship from one sector to another, the degree of mutualism of the entire economic system and its synergism, and the importance of a sector in the economic system. The ecological relationships of all pairs of economic sectors revealed from this research can be used to describe the Australian economic system from the perspective of embodied energy. The long-term development interests of various industries in Australia can be balanced and adjusted according to the positive and negative ecological relationship. The influence of the specific structure on the industry is measured by the connectivity and diversity of the energy network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Effects of energy embodied in exports of the construction sector on energy poverty from a perspective of vertical trade. • The influence of the trade pattern of vertical specialisation on energy flow for the phenomenon of energy poverty in 40 countries. • Energy poverty measured by the energy embodied in vertical specialisation trade from the aspect of value added in the construction sector. Energy requirements have expanded significantly in the process of global development while the energy crisis as an issue is becoming a limitation for economic development and environmental sustainability. The construction sector has contributed to the total energy consumption at a national and global level. The quality of human life is still impacted by energy and fuel poverty. This paper aims to examine the effects of energy embodied in intermediate and final goods of the construction sector on energy poverty from a perspective of vertical trade. The modified Energy Development Index (EDI) in the construction sector is applied to measure the extent of energy poverty in a country. Based on the World Input-Output Database (WIOD), the energy embodied in the exports of vertical trade has been measured in the construction sector. The results show that the developing trend in 40 countries increased in different increments in the research period. Comparing the results at the beginning and the end of the research period, the modified EDIs measured by energy embodied in exports of vertical trade increased in 19 countries but decreased in 21 countries. The positive implications for reducing energy/fuel poverty is proposed in policy making and strategic management in foreign trade within the construction sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of sustainable energy consumption in the socio-economic system has been widely investigated in recent studies. Embodied energy transfer is also part of the normal economic pattern. To evaluate the sustainability of a system, it is important to consider not only the growth of the system as an indicator, but also the development of the system's structure. Growth and development are two phenomena that need to be quantitively measured because these phenomena closely reflect sustainability. However, little research has studied the effects of sectoral level on growth and development. This research addresses growth and development from a network perspective in order to assess the sectoral effects on system characteristics by using information-based ecological network analysis (IENA) and a hypothetical embodied energy network model. In this study, taking the Australian industrial system as an example, Australian national input–output data and industrial consumption data are used to establish the embodied energy network based on Australian industries. The research constructs an embodied energy cycle network with seven major industries and uses a hypothetical extraction method to establish a hypothesis network for each sector. Then the research compares the hypothetical networks with the original embodied energy network. The differences represent the sectoral effects on the growth and development of the embodied energy network. By using the IENA method with the hypothetical network model, the contribution of a single specific sector can be quantified. Analytical results reveal that the sectoral increases in the volume of the network do not reflect system sustainability, while system sustainability improvement requires sectoral contributions not only to system volume but also to an increase in network organization. The research develops a sectoral-level model to identify the key drivers in the identified system from the network perspective. The results show the sectors with high levels of self-embodied energy flows make high contributions to the improvement of system sustainability in the Australian embodied energy network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]