In economic and environmental fields, decoupling refers to an economy that would be able to grow without corresponding increases in environmental pressure. 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.Decoupling Natural Resource Use and Environmental Impacts from Economic Growth, Summary for policymakers, Foreword Environmental pressure is often measured using emissions of pollutants, and decoupling is often measured by the emission intensity of economic output.Decoupling Natural Resource Use and Environmental Impacts from Economic Growth, Summary for policymakers
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. No evidence was found of national or international economy-wide decoupling in a study in 2020. 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.
Definition In 2002, the OECD defined the term as follows: "the term 'decoupling' refers to breaking the link between "environmental bads" and "economic goods." It explains this as having rates of increasing wealth greater than the rates of increasing impacts.OECD 2002 "Indicators to Measure Decoupling of Environmental Pressure from Economic Growth" (excerpt) http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/0/52/1933638.pdf
Terminology
Five axes to assess decoupling There are at least five axes to assess eco-economic decoupling:
Environmental indicators: overall or partial. Overall decoupling refers to cases where decoupling occurs between GDP and all environmental indicators (e.g. water use, land use, greenhouse gas emissions, etc.), while partial for cases where it only concerns one or more environmental indicator, but not all of them. This axis is particularly important for cases where decoupling occurs on one environmental indicator, but at the expenses of another one (e.g. reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but increasing mining). Range: relative or absolute decoupling. (See below) Scale: global or local. Local decoupling refers to cases where decoupling is observed between variables relative to a restricted geographical perimeter (e.g. a country or a water basin), while global decoupling corresponds to decoupling between two variables at the planetary scale (e.g. world GDP and world greenhouse gas emissions). This axis is particularly important for cases where decoupling occurs in some countries, but at the expense of increasing environmental stress in other countries (essentially, outsourcing production). Durability: temporary or permanent. Continuous economic growth requires a permanent absolute decoupling between GDP and environmental pressures. Yet, economic growth and environmental pressures can re-couple later on, making the decoupling only temporary. Magnitude: sufficient or insufficient. In order to be effective, decoupling should be large and fast enough to prevent environmental stress from reaching critical environmental tipping points (often described as planetary boundaries), which lead to de facto irreversible environmental effects.
A more comprehensive checklist to assess eco-economic decoupling can be found in the figure at page 17 in.
Relative and absolute decoupling Tim Jackson, author of Prosperity Without Growth, stresses the importance of differentiating between relative and absolute decoupling:
Relative decoupling refers to a decline in the ecological intensity per unit of economic output. In this situation, resource impacts decline relative to the GDP, which could itself still be rising. Absolute decoupling refers to a situation in which resource impacts decline in absolute terms. Resource efficiencies must increase at least as fast as economic output does and must continue to improve as the economy grows, if absolute decoupling is to occur.
Jackson points out that an economy can correctly claim that it has relatively decoupled its economy in terms of energy inputs per unit of GDP. However, in this situation, total environmental impacts would still be increasing, albeit at a slower pace of growth than in GDP.
Jackson uses this distinction to caution against technology-optimists who use the term decoupling as an "escape route from the dilemma of growth". He points out that "there is quite a lot of evidence to support the existence of [relative decoupling]" in global economies, however "evidence for [absolute decoupling] is harder to find".
Similarly, ecological economist and steady-state theorist Herman Daly stated in 1991:
+ Relative and absolute decoupling Relative decoupling Absolute decoupling Description Decline in the resource intensity per unit of economic output Resource use decline in absolute terms while economic output rise Example Increased carbon efficiency (but lower than economic growth) Increased carbon efficiency higher than economic growth Link with I = PAT Carbon intensity decline (but ≤ population + income growths) Carbon intensity decline > (population growth + income growth) Evidence for carbon emissions Yes: 34% decrease between 1965 and 2015 (/$GDP) No: 300% increase between 1965 and 2015 (absolute emissions) Evidence for resource extraction No: resource use increases more than GDP (1990-2015) No: resource use increases overall (1990-2015)
Between 1990 and 2015, the carbon intensity per $GDP declined of 0.6 percent per year (relative decoupling), but the population grew of 1.3 percent per year and the income per capita also grew of 1.3 percent per year. That is to say, the carbon emissions grew of 1.3 + 1.3 − 0.6 = 2 percent per year, leading to a 62% increase in 25 years (the data reflect no absolute decoupling). According to Tim Jackson:
On economic growth and environmental degradation, Donella Meadows wrote:Donella Meadows, edited by Diana Wright, Thinking in Systems: A Primer, Chelsea Green Publishing, 2008, page 146 ().
Resource and impact decoupling Resource decoupling refers to reducing the rate of resource use per unit of economic activity. The "dematerialization" is based on using less material, energy, water and land resources for the same economic input. Impact decoupling required increasing economic output while reducing negative environmental impacts. These impacts arise from the extraction of resources.Decoupling Natural Resource Use and Environmental Impacts from Economic Growth, Summary for policymakers, page 16
Relevance Historically there has been a close correlation between economic growth and environmental degradation: as communities grow in size and prosperity, so the environment declines. This trend is clearly demonstrated on graphs of human population numbers, economic growth, and environmental indicators. There is a concern that, unless resource use is checked, modern global civilization will follow the path of ancient civilizations that collapsed through overexploitation of their resource base.Diamond, J. (2005). Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. New York: Viking Books. .Diamond, J. (1997). Guns, Germs and Steel: the Fates of Human Societies. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. . While conventional economics is concerned largely with economic growth and the efficient allocation of resources, ecological economics has the explicit goal of sustainable scale (rather than continual growth), fair distribution and efficient allocation, in that order.Daly, H.E. & Farley, J. (2004). Ecological economics: principles and applications. Washington: Island Press. p.xxvi. .Costanza, R. et al. (2007). An Introduction to Ecological Economics. This is an online editable text available at the Encyclopedia of Earth. First published in 1997 by St. Lucie Press and the International Society for Ecological Economics. Ch. 1, pp. 1–4, Ch.3, p. 3. . The World Business Council for Sustainable Development states that "business cannot succeed in societies that fail."WBCSD's 10 messages by which to operate World Business Council for Sustainable Development. Retrieved 6 April 2009.
In economic and environmental fields, the term decoupling is becoming increasingly used in the context of economic production and environmental quality. When used in this way, it refers to the ability of an economy to grow without incurring corresponding increases in environmental pressure. Ecological economics includes the study of societal metabolism, the throughput of resources that enter and exit the economic system in relation to environmental quality.Cleveland, C.J. "Biophysical economics", Encyclopedia of Earth, Last updated: 14 September 2006. Retrieved on: 17 March 2009. An economy that can sustain GDP growth without harming the environment is said to be decoupled. Exactly how, if, or to what extent this can be achieved is a subject of much debate.
In 2011 the International Resource Panel, hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), warned that by 2050 the human race could be devouring 140 billion tons of minerals, ores, fossil fuels and biomass per year—three times its current rate of consumption—unless nations can make serious attempts at decoupling.Decoupling: natural resource use and environmental impacts of economic growth. International Resource Panel report, 2011 The report noted that citizens of developed countries consume an average of 16 tons of those four key resources per capita per annum (ranging up to 40 or more tons per person in some developed countries). By comparison, the average person in India today consumes four tons per year.
Sustainability studies analyse ways to reduce resource intensity (the amount of resource (e.g. water, energy, or materials) needed for the production, consumption and disposal of a unit of good or service) whether this be achieved from improved economic management, product design, or new technology.Daly, H. (1996). Beyond Growth: The Economics of Sustainable Development. Boston: Beacon Press. .