Note: you are viewing the archived version of our website. Click here to go to our new site.

Development and dematerialization: An international study

Title
Development and dematerialization: An international study
Author(s)
Julia K Steinberger
Fridolin Krausmann
Michael Getzner
Heinz Schandl
James West
Year
2013
Type
Journal Article
Source
PloS one, Volume 8, Issue 10
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0070385
Abstract
Economic development and growth depend on growing levels of resource use, and result in environmental impacts from large scale resource extraction and emissions of waste. In this study, we examine the resource dependency of economic activities over the past several decades for a set of countries comprising developing, emerging and mature industrialized economies. Rather than a single universal industrial development pathway, we find a diversity of economic dependencies on material use, made evident through cluster analysis. We conduct tests for relative and absolute decoupling of the economy from material use, and compare these with similar tests for decoupling from carbon emissions, both for single countries and country groupings using panel analysis. We show that, over the longer term, emerging and developing countries tend to have significantly larger material-economic coupling than mature industrialized economies (although this effect may be enhanced by trade patterns), but that the contrary is true for short-term coupling. Moreover, we demonstrate that absolute dematerialization limits economic growth rates, while the successful industrialization of developing countries inevitably requires a strong material component. Alternative development priorities are thus urgently needed both for mature and emerging economies: reducing absolute consumption levels for the former, and avoiding the trap of resource-intensive economic and human development for the latter.
Access
Open Access
More Information
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0070385#pone-0070385-g002

Tags

Back Incorrect or incomplete information? Click here to report this.

This website provides meta data on papers and other publications, with links to the original publications. These papers may be copyrighted or otherwise protected by the publishing journal or author. Some journals provide open access to their publications. When possible we will try to include abstracts and more details for open access publications. For more details, follow the link to the original document and/or contact the publisher/author.