Assessing Pathways for Resource Decoupling in Europe

Nuno Maria Vicente Carvalhinho

Key information

Authors:

Nuno Maria Vicente Carvalhinho (Nuno Maria Vicente Carvalhinho)

Supervisors:

Patrícia De Carvalho Baptista (Patrícia De Carvalho Baptista); Paulo Manuel Cadete Ferrão (Paulo Manuel Cadete Ferrão)

Published in

December 4, 2024

Abstract

The exponential increase in the world’s population results in growing pressure on the use of natural resources, whose associated environmental impacts compromise sustainability goals and the well-being of humanity. To mitigate climate change and environmental degradation, it is necessary to optimize the use of resources and practice the sustainable development of economies. The objective of this thesis is to develop an analysis method that allows to assess how sustainable development can be achieved and to identify the various pathways of economic resource decoupling in different European countries. For this study, data quantifying the monetary and material flows relating to each economy was obtained through physical and monetary input-output tables, respectively, PIOTs and MIOTs. The European countries under study were then grouped in clusters according to similar trends in the evolution of resource productivity (RP) associated with each economy since the beginning of the 21st century. In order to analyze the factors that explain how the economies behave, the contribution to GDP of each economic sector and their respective material consumption were analyzed. The results show that there are five clusters in Europe with different patterns of resource consumption and economic behavior. These clusters represent three states of development characterized by different levels of resource productivity. The countries with the highest RP base their economies on tertiary sectors that are associated with low material consumption, while in the countries with low productivity this is explained by economies dependent on extractive and transformation sectors with high consumption of natural resources.