Vol. 1(2) SEP 2011 - SAVAP International

Academic Research International
ISSN: 2223-9553
Volume 1, Issue 2, September 2011
Moving on now from Herman et al in 1990 to work published a decade later, we find that a
considerable amount of work was carried out in the intervening period on material flow
analysis, especially in industrialised countries, despite some remaining problems of data
availability, and results were conceptualised in terms of linking. And coming back to the
Environmental Kuznets Curve, we note that this curve is produced with both weak and strong
de-linking, with GDP per capita plotted on the horizontal (x) axis. With weak de-linking, the
environmental intensity of the economy is plotted on the vertical (y) axis. With strong delinking,
environmental stress or environmental stress per capita is plotted on the vertical axis
(Vehmas et al, 2003).
Generally speaking, much evidence has been found to support the view that weak de-linking
has been taking place in industrialised countries (Vehmas, ibid; Canas, 2003). Stated in
different terms, the productivity of materials and energy has been increasing. If we now
restrict ourselves to the European Union, the general trend over the period 1980 to 2000 has
been one of weak de-linking. However, if results for individual EU countries are examined
closely, and the period 1980 to 2000 divided into the two component decades, we find that
the general trend for the first of these decades was weak de-linking, while in the second of
these two decades there was a general trend to strong de-linking (decrease in absolute
material flows) in some countries. However, in some countries, in the late 1990s, this
decrease in absolute material flows stagnated, and some increase in flows took place (relinking).
And Vehmas (ibid) concluded, in relation to the right side of the inverted U-shaped
Kuznets curve, that “the decreasing trend in material flows or material flows per capita
cannot be expected to be a continuous one in any country”. In this connection they note that
“the possibilities for improving environmental efficiencies may have a technological (e.g.
thermodynamic) or economic upper limit”.
Now earlier in this essay (the section on International Trade and the Pollution Haven
Hypothesis) we noted that through international trade environmental improvement in high
income countries, that is, the industrialised countries, might have taken place at least partly at
the expense of poorer countries. And we can then ask the question specifically in relation to
material flows, to what extent has de-linking in the industrialised countries been achieved at
the expense of poorer countries This question was addressed by Fischer-Kowalski and
Amann (2001).
These authors concur with the view that de-linking has been occurring in industrialised
countries. In their words “we have been able to demonstrate that a certain reduction in
material intensity during recent decades seems to have been ubiquitous among affluent
industrial countries, both on an overall level and on a per capita level ”. But they then go on
to enquire - what are the possible explanations They list three:
1. Technological change (driven they say by the desire for cost reduction and profitablity, but
we add pressure from concerned citizens).
2. “Change in consumption patterns away from materially intensive commodities towards
labour intensive services”.
3. “Change in the international division of labour characterized by the externalization of the
most materially intensive processes of raw material extraction and industrial production to the
'peripheral' countries of the 'south'”.
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