ABSTRACT
Material decoupling means using materials more efficiently and recycling more of them. Decoupling is measured by the amount of energy or material used divided by the worth in US dollars of goods and services produced; if this ratio is decreasing, then decoupling is happening. Decoupling can be measured for a particular process or product, for a country’s economy, or for the world economy. There is strong evidence and general agreement that relative decoupling has been happening for decades, perhaps through the entire Industrial Revolution. The “unfavourable conditions” for decoupling included not only falling or stagnant resource prices, but also massive subsidies to extraction industries by most of the world’s governments. Some decoupling optimists do see it as a way to keep economic growth happening while reducing extraction and pollution, for example, minimizing climate disruption. Decoupling incentives will have to apply to imported raw materials and finished products, as well as domestic extraction.
