Raising the bar

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openAccess

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Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä

Date

2021-06-24

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Mcode

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Language

en

Pages

15
462-476

Series

Environmental Politics, Volume 30, issue 3

Abstract

Decoupling environmental ‘bads’ from economic ‘goods’ is a key part of policies such as green growth and circular economy that see economic growth as desirable or necessary, and also see that current use of natural resources and its environmental impacts is unsustainable. We estimate what a ‘successful decoupling’ (2% annual GDP growth and a decline in resource use by 2050 to a level that could be sustainable and compatible with a maximum 2°C global warming) would mean in terms of its type, timeline and size. Compared to 2017, ‘successful’ decoupling has to result in 2.6 times more GDP out of every ton of material use, including in-use material stocks. There are no realistic scenarios for such an increase in resource productivity.

Description

Funding Information: This work was supported by the Academy of Finland [312623/312663]; Kone Foundation [n/a]. Publisher Copyright: © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Keywords

Decoupling, material stocks, material use, resource use

Other note

Citation

Vadén , T , Lähde , V , Majava , A , Järvensivu , P , Toivanen , T & Eronen , J T 2021 , ' Raising the bar : on the type, size and timeline of a ‘successful’ decoupling ' , Environmental Politics , vol. 30 , no. 3 , pp. 462-476 . https://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2020.1783951