Decoupling Resource Use and Environmental Impacts from Economic Growth

Image

Release Date: 12 May 2011

UNEP report finds consumption levels far beyond what's sustainable. Improving the rate of resource productivity (“doing more with less”) faster than the economic growth rate is the notion behind decoupling,” the panel says. That goal, however, demands an urgent rethink of the links between resource use and economic prosperity, buttressed by a massive investment in technological, financial and social innovation, to at least freeze per capita consumption in wealthy countries and help developing nations follow a more sustainable path.