ABSTRACT

Indicators of decoupling/delinking are becoming increasingly popular for detecting and measuring improvements in environmental/resource efficiency with respect to economic activity. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD 2002) has conducted extensive research into the use of decoupling indicators for reporting and policy-evaluation purposes, and the European Environment Agency’s state of the environment reports (EEA 2003a, b, c) use a number of decoupling or resource-efficiency indicators. EEA (2006) highlights the importance also of market based instruments for achieving a higher degree of delinking for waste indicators. The European Union (EU) policy thematic strategies on resources and

waste, include reference to absolute and relative delinking indicators (EC 2003a, b; Jacobsen et al. 2004). The former is a negative relationship between economic growth and environmental impacts, associated with the descending side of an inverted U shape, according to the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) framework. The latter, the ascending side of the U shape, may be positive but decreasing in size, income-environment relationship. This represents a positive lower than unity elasticity in economic terms. There is no delinking observed on the ascending part of the EKC if there is unity or higher than unity elasticity. Increased delinking is the primary aim for waste, which, in terms of its environmental impacts and economic costs, is no less relevant than climate change (Figure 2.1). Andersen et al. (2007) recently estimated waste trends for the EU-15 and the

EU-10 new entrants, and found that waste generation is linked to economic activities by non-constant trend ratios. This rather descriptive analysis of delinking in EU countries produces forecasts of increased relative delinking; it does not confirm the EKC evidence. Projections for 2005-20 for the UK, France and Italy show a growth in municipal solid waste (MSW) of around 15-20 per cent, which, at least at first sight, may be compatible with relative delinking with respect to gross domestic product (GDP) and consumption growth. The EEA (2007: 4) argues that:

It is increasingly important to provide answers to these questions because waste volumes in the EU are growing, driven by changing production

and consumption patterns. It is also important because there is a growing interest in sharing best practice and exchanging national-level experience across Europe, with the common goal of achieving more cost-effective solutions to the various problems being faced.