『Abstract
Resource flows constitute the materials basis of the economy.
At the same time, they carry and induce an environmental burden
associated with resource extraction and the subsequent material
flows and stocks, which finally end up as waste and emissions.
A reduction of this material throughput and the related impacts
would require a reduction of resource inputs. And breaking the
link between resource consumption and economic growth would require
an increase in resource productivity. Material flow analysis (MFA)
can be used to quantify resource flows and indicate resource productivity.
In this article, we study the available empirical evidence on
the actual (de-)linkage of material resource use and economic
growth.
We compare resource use with respect to total material requirement
(MR) and direst material input (DMI) for 11 and 26 countries,
respectively, and the European Union (EU-15). The dynamics of
TMR, as well as of the main components are analysed in relation
to economic growth in order to show whether there is a decoupling
(relative or absolute) from GDP and a change of the metabolic
structure in the course of economic development. DMI/cap so far
only decoupled from GDP/cap in relative terms; that is, in most
countries, it reached a rather constant level but - with the exception
of Czech Republic - showed no absolute decline yet. TMR/cap was
reduced in two high-income countries and one low-income country
due to political influence. Changes in TMR were more influenced
by hidden flows (HF) than by DMI. We analyse the dynamics of the
structure and composition of TMR in the course of economic development.
In general, the economic development of industrial countries was
accompanied by a shift from domestic to foreign resource extraction.
Different relations can be discovered for the share of biomass,
fossil fuel resources, construction resources and metals and industrial
minerals.
Keywords: Total material requirements; Direct material input;
Dematerialization; Resource productivity; EKC; Metabolism of the
economy; Material flow analysis (MFA)』
1. Introduction
2. Methods
3. Composition of TMR
4. Development of DMI and GDP
4.1. Country-specific classification
4.2. Panel analysis
4.2.1. Findings
4.2.2. Country effects
4.2.3. Intermediate results
5. Development of TMR and GDP
5.1. Country-specific classification
5.2. Panel analysis
6. Development of TMR in relation to DMI and HF
7. Domestic versus foreign origin of TMR
8. Renewable materials and erosion
9. Fossil fuels
10. Construction minerals and excavation
11. Metals and industrial minerals
12. Conclusions
Acknowledgements
Appendix A. The feasible generalized least squares method
Appendix B. Diagnostic tests
References