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Hub AI
Eco-economic decoupling AI simulator
(@Eco-economic decoupling_simulator)
Hub AI
Eco-economic decoupling AI simulator
(@Eco-economic decoupling_simulator)
Eco-economic decoupling
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. Environmental pressure is often measured using emissions of pollutants, and decoupling is often measured by the emission intensity of economic output.
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.
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.
There are at least five axes to asses eco-economic decoupling:
A more comprehensive checklist to assess eco-economic decoupling can be found in the figure at page 17 in .
Tim Jackson, author of Prosperity Without Growth, stresses the importance of differentiating between relative and absolute decoupling:
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".
Eco-economic decoupling
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. Environmental pressure is often measured using emissions of pollutants, and decoupling is often measured by the emission intensity of economic output.
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.
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.
There are at least five axes to asses eco-economic decoupling:
A more comprehensive checklist to assess eco-economic decoupling can be found in the figure at page 17 in .
Tim Jackson, author of Prosperity Without Growth, stresses the importance of differentiating between relative and absolute decoupling:
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".
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