From: d@d.d   
      
   Hello,   
      
      
   Dematerialization Through Services: Evaluating the Evidence   
      
   In 1972, the Club of Rome released its famous report The Limits to   
   Growth (Meadows, 1972). Since then, economists have debated whether   
   economic growth can decouple from environmental impact. Proponents of   
   the ‘environmental Kuznets curve’ argue that decoupling is possible   
   (Grossman and Krueger, 1994; Panayotou, 1993; Shafik and Bandyopadhyay,   
   1992). The idea is that environmental impact first rises and then falls   
   with economic growth. The transition to services provides a plausible   
   mechanism for this decoupling. Panayotou et al (2000) propose that   
   “economic growth brings about structural change that shifts the center   
   of gravity of the economy from low-polluting agriculture to   
   high-polluting industry and eventually back to low polluting services”.   
      
   The problem with this hypothesis is that it neglects the complex social   
   changes that come with a service transition. As Colin Clark (1940)   
   observed long ago, sectoral change seems to be a key part of economic   
   growth. And economic growth is strongly associated with the growth of   
   fossil fuel energy use (Brown et al, 2011, 2014). When framed this way,   
   it is not surprising that the ‘dematerialization through services’   
   hypothesis fails. I find no evidence that a service transition reduces   
   carbon emissions. Instead, it is associated with the growth of   
   per capita emissions.   
      
   What are the implications for policy makers? It seems that a service   
   transition does not ‘automatically’ lead to decreased environmental   
   impact. This implies that purposeful policy intervention is required. It   
   is obviously important to decarbonize energy sources by investing in   
   renewable energy. But it is unclear how this relates to sectoral change   
   (if it relates at all). Future research may make this clearer. But for   
   now, we can draw a simple conclusion. The evidence indicates that   
   ‘dematerialization through services’ is not a valid policy for   
   reducing carbon emissions.   
      
      
   Read more here:   
      
   http://bnarchives.yorku.ca/589/2/20190000_fix_dematerialization_   
   hrough_services_preprint.pdf   
      
      
   Thank you,   
   Amine Moulay Ramdane.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)