ABSTRACT
After some comments on the concepts of structural environmental stress and ecological structural policy, this chapter presents the main results of a study on ecologically important structural change in the industrialised economies during the 1970s and 1980s. Four aspects of this change will be dealt with in greater detail: energy prices, neglected technological possibilities for ecological modernisation, the importance of intra- and intersectoral change in the manufacturing sector, and the low significance attached to sectoral structural policy. The chapter deals with industrial policy as ecological structural policy. This includes all measures designed to reduce structural environmental stress through a different approach to industrial production. The research showed that advanced industrialised countries in traditional sectors such as cement, crude steel, petroleum products or fertiliser achieved at least relative reduction in structural environmental stress by uncoupling these production sectors from overall economic growth.
