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The decoupling analysis has become an important tool to explore whether an economy is becoming less dependent on energy resources. Based on the LMDI (Log-Mean Divisia Index) method, this paper defines a new decoupling indicator (ZM decoupling indicator), which depicts the relationship between energy saving influence factors and energy driving influence factors. Then, the ZM decoupling indicator is utilized to explore the state of decoupling between economic growth and energy consumption in China. The main results are as follows: (1) The gap of economic structure between the secondary industry and tertiary industry gradually narrowed during the study period 1991–2012. (2) The economic growth effect ( Δ E g t ) was the critical factor in the growth of the final energy consumption in China. However, the energy intensity effect ( Δ E ei t ) played an important role in decreasing the final energy consumption. (3) Based on the definition of ZM decoupling indicator, only four decoupling statuses occurred in China over the study period: weak decoupling, expansive coupling, strong decoupling, and expansive negative decoupling.

Beijing, the capital of China, is experiencing a serious lack of water, which is becoming a main factor in the restriction of the development of the social economy. Due to the low economic efficiency and high consumption proportion of agricultural water use, the relationship between economic growth and agricultural water use is worth investigating. The “decoupling” index is becoming increasingly popular for identifying the degree of non-synchronous variation between resource consumption and economic growth. However, few studies address the decoupling between the crop water consumption and agricultural economic growth. This paper involves the water footprint (WF) to assess the water consumption in the crop production process. After an evaluation of the crop WF in Beijing, this paper applies the decoupling indicators to examine the occurrence of non-synchronous variation between the agricultural gross domestic product (GDP) and crop WF in Beijing from 1981 to 2013. The results show that the WF of crop production in 2013 reduced by 62.1% compared to that in 1980 — in total, 1.81 × 109 m 3 . According to the decoupling states, the entire study period is divided into three periods. From 1981 to 2013, the decoupling states represented seventy-five percent of the years from 1981 to 1992 (Period I) with a moderate decoupling degree, more than ninety percent from 1993 to 2003 (Period II) with a very strong decoupling degree and moved from non-decoupling to strong decoupling from 2004 to 2013 (Period III). Adjusting plantation structure, technology innovation and raising awareness of water-saving, may promote the decoupling degree between WF and agricultural GDP in Beijing.

The increase in human-induced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions released into the atmosphere is one of the biggest concerns around the globe. The waste sector contributes significantly to this verified increase in emissions, not only because of the quantity of waste generated, but also because of waste treatment, a highly polluting process. To deal with these issues, several directives are being implemented at a European level. In order to confirm if these policies to reduce GHG emissions associated with waste disposal are efficient, this paper aims to assess the environmental efficiencies that result from waste generation. The data used in this study encompass a set of 15 European countries for the period between 2001 and 2015. Eco-efficiency is measured by using the ratio of GDP per capita and GHG emissions per capita derived from the waste sector, and is assessed by the application of the data envelopment analysis approach. Additionally, we also evaluate the state of decoupling between the waste sector emissions (GHG emissions) and economic growth. This analysis intends to understand which economic drivers produce decoupling effects, and to assess to what extent additional factors are influencing this core relationship. Globally, the results show that Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium and Sweden present better economic and environmental performance when compared to the other countries. Luxembourg is beyond doubt the most efficient country, presenting the highest scores in most of the years between 2001 and 2015. On the other hand, countries like France, Portugal and Austria report the worst performance, presenting eco-efficiency scores below 20%, for the whole period under analysis. In addition, the results of the decoupling elasticity analysis suggest that the optimal decoupling state occurs when there is a drastic and significant reduction in the mean variations of the GHG emissions in the waste sector and a low variation in the average economic growth rate. Our results reinforce the existence of a discrepancy in waste management within the different member states. The countries, which include in their waste management a wider variety of waste treatments, are more efficient than the ones that are still using landfilling as the principal form of waste disposal. Recycling rates play a crucial role for the countries to move up in the “Waste hierarchy”, as well as the implementation of the EU directives relating to waste management. Taking all this in consideration, policy makers must reinforce these directives not only at a national, but also at regional level.

Exploring the factors driving the decoupling of China’s sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions from economic growth (DEI) is crucial for achieving sustainable development. By analyzing the decoupling indicators and driving factors at both the generation and treatment stages of SO2, more effective targeted mitigation strategies can be developed. We employ the Tapio decoupling model and propose a two-stage method to examine the decoupling issues related to SO2. Our findings indicate that: ① DEI shows a steady and significant improvement, with SO2 emission intensity identified as the primary driver. ② for the decoupling of economic growth and SO2 generation, energy scale serves as the largest stimulator, while the effect of energy intensity changes from negative to positive, and pollution intensity is first positive and then negative. ③ For the decoupling of SO2 generation and SO2 removal, treatment efficiency leads as the largest promoter, followed by treatment intensity. Based on these results, this study recommends that China focuses more on enhancing clean energy utilization and the effectiveness of treatment processes.

The decoupling theory is an appropriate tool to study the relationship between economic growth and energy consumption (or environment pollution). But the underlying causes of the states of decoupling are difficult to find. Based on the Log–Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) theory, this paper provides a new way to find the nature of the factors governing the changes in the state of decoupling between the economic growth and energy consumption in China. Our results show that only four states of decoupling occurred during the period 1991–2012: weak decoupling, expansive coupling, expansive negative decoupling, and strong decoupling. The economic activity effect made a negative impact on the decoupling in the study period. The energy intensity effect played a positive role in the development of decoupling except in 2003, 2004, and 2008. The economic structure effect only played a positive role in the development of decoupling in several years. However, the energy structure effect plays a relative small role in the development of decoupling.

This study decomposed the indicator of decoupling of carbon emissions due to fossil energy consumption from economic growth in China via the logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) method to explore key factors influencing decoupling status in different periods. The decoupling indicator was decomposed into energy structure, energy intensity, economic structure, and economic output effects over each period. Decoupling varied due to changes in economic growth and energy intensity during different periods. The economic output effect significantly enhanced decoupling, while the energy intensity effect greatly decreased decoupling. The energy structure and economic structure effects had slight impacts on decoupling. A comparative analysis across different sectors and industrial subsectors revealed that industrial growth determined the status of decoupling of carbon emissions from economic growth in China. In terms of industrial subsectors, the major sources of carbon emissions were electricity, steam, and water production and other energy-intensive subsectors. The energy-intensive subsectors, such as coal mining and washing, petroleum and natural gas exploitation, and chemical manufacture, had great effects on the decoupling of carbon emissions, whereas non-energy-intensive subsectors, such as instruments, meters, cultural and office machinery, and ordinary equipment manufacture, had relatively slight impacts on the decoupling. Policy implications in terms of economic growth, economic structure, and energy consumption were discussed.

Nonferrous metal is an important basis material for the development of the national economy, and its consumption directly affects economic development. It has great significance in the effective utilization of nonferrous metals, development of an environment-friendly society, and investigation of the decoupling of nonferrous metal consumption and GDP growth. The decoupling indicators for nonferrous metal consumption and GDP growth (D ᵣ) in China from 1995 to 2010 were calculated in this study, and the results were analyzed. A productive model based on BP neural network was established. Then, the decoupling indicators for nonferrous metal consumption and GDP growth in China for the period of 2011–2020 were predicted. For the period of 1995–2010, the annual average decoupling indicators were <1 for copper, aluminum, zinc, lead, and nickel, except for tin, which was 0.21. The analysis showed that the decoupling of nonferrous metal consumption and GDP growth is in a less optimistic situation to copper, aluminum, zinc, lead, and nickel in China from 1995 to 2010. The annual average decoupling indicator for tin was 0.21, which indicates relative decoupling. For the period of 2011–2020, the predicted decoupling indicators for copper, aluminum, zinc, lead, nickel, and tin were between 0 and 1. This finding indicates the implementation of relative decoupling. However, the total consumption of nonferrous metals did not decouple from GDP growth.

Since 2005, China has become the largest emitter of CO2. The transport sector is a major source of CO2 emissions, and the most rapidly growing sector in terms of fuel consumption and CO2 emissions in China. This paper estimated CO2 emissions in the transport sector across 30 provinces through the IPCC (International Panel on Climate Change) top-down method and identified the spatiotemporal pattern of the decoupling of transport CO2 emissions from economic growth during 1995 to 2016 by the modified Tapio’s decoupling model. The CO2 emissions in the transport sector increased from 103.10 million ton (Mt) in 1995 to 701.04 Mt in 2016. The year, 2005, was a turning point as the growth rate of transport CO2 emissions and the intensity of transport CO2 emissions declined. The spatial pattern of transport CO2 emissions and its decoupling status both exhibited an east-west differentiation. Nearly 80% of the provinces recently achieved decoupling, and absolute decoupling is beginning to take place. The local practices of Tianjin should be the subject of special attention. National carbon reduction policies have played a significant role in achieving a transition to low-carbon emissions in the Chinese transport sector, and the integration of multi-scale transport CO2 reduction policies will be promising for its decarbonisation.

The decoupling conditions of GDP and Total Primary Energy Supply (TPES) for the BRICS in the period 1971-2008 were analyzed. It is concluded that in the studied period, the decoupling indicators of China and Russia are relatively higher than that of Brazil, South Africa and India. The BRICS’s decoupling distribution is similar to China, because China accounts for most part of TPES and GDP of the BRICS. To restrain the total resource or energy consumption from increasing too fast, it is suggested to match the indicators of GDP growth and the decreasing rate of resource consumption per unit of GDP appropriately.

Decoupling economic growth from its negative environmental impacts is emphasized as a key strategy for achieving environmental sustainability. Indicators to measure this decoupling are of importance to policy-making, social debates and academic research. Growth in the housing sector has been linked to a number of negative environmental impacts. Based on theoretical analyses of decoupling strategies for that sector, this article proposes a comprehensive and systematic set of indicators for decoupling of housing-related environmental impacts from economic growth. These indicators measure three aspects of the decoupling strategies: substituting for growth in the housing sector; increasing the economic value of the residential building stock via qualitative improvement; and improving eco-efficiency in relation to residential buildings. The indicator set covers the environmental consequences from the housing sector in terms of material consumption, energy consumption and land-related impacts. Applications of some of the indicators are then illustrated with an example from a case study in the Hangzhou Metropolitan Area in China. Finally, the fruitfulness and limitations of the decoupling indicators are discussed.