Policy Review on Decoupling: Development of indicators to assess decoupling of economic development and environmental pressure in the EU-25 and AC-3 countries

This study has been conducted within the framework of the EU Thematic Strategy on the Sustainable Use of Natural Resources (Resource Strategy). The objective of the Resource Strategy is described in the 6th Environmental Action Programme as: "ensuring that the consumption of resources and their associated impacts do not exceed the carrying capacity of the environment and breaking the linkages between economic growth and resource use". This objective has different aspects. Not exceeding the carrying capacity of the environment refers to an absolute limit - however difficult to define - to the extraction and consumption of resources. It also clarifies the reason for the second objective, breaking the linkage between economic growth and resource use: reducing or avoiding environmental impacts. Breaking the linkage between economic growth and resource use, or decoupling, is a relative target. In all, the following characteristics apply to decoupling as understood in the 6th EAP:

• decoupling is applied at the level of (supra)national economies

• the aim is reducing environmental impacts at a continued economic growth

• the target is the use of materials or resources

• decoupling is relative, but the underlying idea is sensitive to absolute limits.

The question that is the subject of this study is how to measure decoupling and how to monitor progress on the decoupling road. For monitoring, indicators or measurements are required that encompass the abovementioned characteristics: these indicators should be applicable at the (supra)national level, they should indicate a total level of environmental impacts, related to the use of materials or resources, and should enable creating time series in order to monitor progress. In earlier studies, the Domestic Material Consumption over GDP (DMC/€) has been put forward as such an indicator. DMC measures the material resources which are directly consumed within a national economy and are put forward as indicators, however indirect, for environmental pressure. The reasoning behind this is that in the end each kilogram of material entering an economy has to come out at some moment as waste or emissions.

Website:

http://www.leidenuniv.nl/cml/ssp/projects/dematerialisation/policy_review_on_decoupling.pdf

Date (Creation): 2005-01-01

Date (Publication): 2005-01-01

Date (Revision)

Citation identifier: https://www.mica-project.eu/ / MICA_B2-66
MICA WP3 2017-09-25T10:33:00 Record extracted from Batch 2 spreadsheet

Other citation details: No additional information provided about the dataset

Purpose: Purpose for data generation is not known

Status: Completed

Point of contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML), Leiden University			Resource provider

Maintenance and update frequency: Not planned

dataCentre

MICA

MICA ontology (TemporalScheme)

Mixture of historic (up to 2005) and recent (2006 onwards)

MICA ontology (DataScheme)

General descriptive information / Report / Other (Report)

Keywords

Requirement for data generation: Voluntary

Keywords

Method of data or information generation: Academic research

GEMET Concepts

Exports

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Imports

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Minerals

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Other economic activities

GEMET Concepts

Production

GEMET Concepts

Society

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Stocks

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Waste flows

INSPIRE commodities

Aluminium

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Copper

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Lead

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Zinc

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Iron

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Nickel

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Anthracite

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Bituminous coal

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Other hard coal

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Lignite

INSPIRE Fossil Fuel

Crude oil

INSPIRE Fossil Fuel

Natural gas

INSPIRE Fossil Fuel

Peat

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Sillimanite

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kyanite

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andalusite

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Zeolite

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Fuller's earth

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Sepiolite

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Kaolin

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Other kaolinitic clays (ball clays)

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Brick or tile clays

INSPIRE Enduse Potential

Engineering clay (Other clays)

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Halloysite (Other clays)

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Crushed rock aggregates

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Sand and gravel

INSPIRE Enduse Potential

Dimension and building stone

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Limestone for lime