Decoupling and Dematerialisation of the Economy

Definition
The MEFA (Material and Energy Flow Analysis) framework provides a tool to monitor progress in terms of the decoupling (disconnection or separation) of economic and social well-being from the use of biophysical resources. Decoupling may occur in at least three relations: (1) economic growth e.g. as measured by GDP growth may be decoupled from material and energy throughput (an increase in efficiency‘‘ leading to dematerialization‘‘), (2) material and energy throughput may be decoupled from social well-being (sufficiency‘‘), and (3) social well-being may be decoupled from economic growth (equity) .

Observed Patterns
According to Haberl et al. (2004) studies on the relation between economic growth and national material throughput reveal three patterns: (1) No decoupling;‘‘ i.e., material throughput increased faster or as fast as GDP, as was the case for Greece in the past two decades (see Eurostat, 2002) (2) Relative decoupling,‘‘ a situation where the amount of material or energy needed to produce $1 of GDP declines over time – this be observed in many countries (see Eurostat, 2002; Fischer- Kowalski and Amann, 2001; Schandl et al., 1999) and (3) Absolute decoupling‘‘ in the sense that the aggregate materials and energy throughput of an economy declines over time while GDP continues to grow has taken place in a few industrial economies such as Germany or The Netherlands (Eurostat, 2002) although in this (and the other cases) the trade patterns must be taken into account. For instance, production of material-intensive raw materials and products can be outsourced through trade.