Eco-economic decoupling

For other uses, see Decoupling (disambiguation).

Example of decoupling: Countries that managed to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions (working towards a low-carbon economy) while still growing their economy.

In economic and environmental fields, decoupling refers to an economy that would be able to grow without corresponding increases in environmental pressure.[1] In many economies, increasing production (GDP) raises pressure on the environment. An economy that would be able to sustain economic growth while reducing the amount of resources such as water or fossil fuels used and delink environmental deterioration at the same time would be said to be decoupled.[2] Environmental pressure is often measured using emissions of pollutants, and decoupling is often measured by the emission intensity of economic output.[3]

Studies have found that absolute decoupling was rare and that only a few industrialised countries had weak decoupling of GDP from "consumption-based" CO2 production.[4] No evidence was found of national or international economy-wide decoupling in a study in 2020.[5] In cases where evidence of decoupling exists, one proposed explanation is the transition to a service economy. The environmental Kuznets curve is a proposed model for eco-economic decoupling.[6]

  1. ^ Authors, Guest; Roser, Max (2018). "Shrink emissions, not the economy". Our World in Data.
  2. ^ Decoupling Natural Resource Use and Environmental Impacts from Economic Growth, Summary for policymakers, Foreword
  3. ^ Decoupling Natural Resource Use and Environmental Impacts from Economic Growth, Summary for policymakers
  4. ^ Haberl, Helmut; Wiedenhofer, Dominik; Virág, Doris; Kalt, Gerald; Plank, Barbara; Brockway, Paul; Fishman, Tomer; Hausknost, Daniel; Krausmann, Fridolin; Leon-Gruchalski, Bartholomäus; Mayer, Andreas (2020). "A systematic review of the evidence on decoupling of GDP, resource use and GHG emissions, part II: synthesizing the insights". Environmental Research Letters. 15 (6): 065003. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ab842a. ISSN 1748-9326. S2CID 216453887.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Vaden2020 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ "Is economic growth compatible with a sustainable Nordic future?" (PDF). Nordic Council of Ministers. Retrieved 7 September 2022.