A systematic review of the evidence on decoupling of GDP, resource use and GHG emissions, part II: synthesizing the insights

Abstract Strategies toward ambitious climate targets usually rely on the concept of ‘decoupling’; that is, they aim at promoting economic growth while reducing the use of natural resources and GHG emissions. GDP growth coinciding with absolute reductions in emissions or resource use is denoted as ‘absolute decoupling’, as opposed to ‘relative decoupling’, where resource use or emissions increase less so than does GDP. Based on the bibliometric mapping in part I (Wiedenhofer et al , 2020 Environ. Res. Lett. 15 063002 ), we synthesize the evidence emerging from the selected 835 peer-reviewed articles. We evaluate empirical studies of decoupling related to final/useful energy, exergy, use of material resources,…

• AS
  Austrian Science Fund

  Award: MISO P27590
• EA
  Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

  Award: EP/R024251/1
• HE
  H2020 European Research Council

  Award: MAT_STOCKS 741950