Decoupling 2: Technologies, Opportunities and Policy Options

List of figures and tables VIII
Abbreviations and acronyms X
Preface XII
Foreword XIV
Executive Summary
1 Changes in Resource Use and Scarcity
1.1 The drivers of changes in resource use
1.1.1 Population
1.1.2 Income
1.2 Future trends in these drivers of resource use
1.2.1 Implications for resource demand
1.3 The Consequences of increasing resource use
1.3.1 Increasing resource prices
1.3.2 Increased price volatility and price shocks
1.3.3 Increasing resources scarcities
1.3.4 Increased disruption of environmental systems
1.4 Why these problems appear unlikely to be solved by a “leave it to the market approach.”
1.4.1 The scale and rate of change often outpaces the supply side response
1.4.2 Historically, growth in developed countries has used resources from other countries
1.4.3 Declining ore grades and impacts on other resources
1.4.4 Linkages between energy production, water, resources and food
1.4.5 Tipping points, sudden or irreversible declines
1.4.6 Many of the essential resources are not accurately priced by the market
2 Responding to Change
2.1 Strategic implications of trends in resource use
2.1.1 A changing basis of competitive economic advantage
2.1.2 Potential advantages for developing countries
2.1.3 Risks of disruption to existing economic growth patterns
2.2 Decoupling as a response
2.2.1 What is decoupling?
2.2.2 Choices involved in decoupling
2.2.3 The “‘rebound effect”’ from resource productivity gains
2.2.4 Choosing decoupling is an active choice
3 Technological Responses Allowing Significant Decoupling
3.1 The widespread opportunity
3.2 Technologies to save energy
3.2.1 Technologies directly reducing fossil fuel consumption
3.2.2 Technologies directly saving electricity in industry
3.2.3 Technologies for reducing fossil-fuel demand in transportation: trucks and ships
3.2.4 Technologies for reducing fossil-fuel demand in transportation: rail and road passengers
3.3 Technologies saving metals and minerals
3.3.1 Steel end use in construction
3.3.2 Reduction in metal use
3.3.3 Saving materials from waste streams decoupling 2 decoupling 2 technologies, opportunities
and policy options
3.4 Technologies saving freshwater and biotic resources
3.4.1 Technologies saving freshwater extraction
3.4.2 Technologies protecting soil fertility
3.4.3 Technology- saving biotic resources
3.4.4 Combinations of technologies
4 What currently holds back decoupling?
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Growth, development and transition
4.3 Cycles of Growth and Transition
4.4 Innovative capacity
4.5 Bias in innovation investment decisions
4.6 The legacy policy framework
4.7 Biases against investment in innovation
4.7.1 Physical and technological biases
4.7.2 Behavioural biases
4.7.3 Organisational – including biases against finance for resource productivity
4.7.4 Other institutional norms, including short-term incentives
4.8 Inertia in political systems and systems lock-in
5 Deepening understanding about the nature of decoupling
5.1 Burden shifting – or ‘decoupling through trade’
5.2 Understanding the drivers behind decoupling
5.3 Decoupling what matters
6 Facilitating Transition: Removing barriers to decoupling
6.1 Decoupling can happen
6.2 Case studies of decoupling
6.2.1 Decoupling economic growth from freshwater extraction
6.2.2 Decoupling in Australia
6.2.3 Decoupling in Singapore
6.2.4 Decoupling economic growth from air pollution
6.3 Decoupling resource use across a whole economy
6.3.1 The challenges for decoupling
6.3.2 Multi-level perspective on transition
6.4 Creating the conditions for decoupling
6.4.1 Many policy makers have a crucial role
6.4.2 Creation of policy mixes
6.4.3 Long-term thinking
6.4.4 Selecting the scope
6.5 Life -cycle thinking
7 An overview of policies that have promoted decoupling
7.1 Strategies
7.1.1 Reducing uncertainty and providing direction
7.1.2 Creating policy coherence
7.1.3 Creation of new institutional structures
7.1.4 Advisory strategies
7.2 Innovation enabling policies
7.2.1 Policies increasing capacity to innovate
7.2.2 Policies reducing the downsides of change
7.3 Policies directly affecting resource prices
7.4 Price-based instruments: fees and charges, taxes and subsidies
7.4.1 Fees or charges
7.4.2 Taxes
7.4.3 Subsidies
7.5 Reform of taxes and subsidies
7.5.1 Benefits of reform
7.5.2 Challenges for reform
7.5.3 Finding an appropriate level of taxes
7.5.4 Induced changes
7.6 Creating new market institutions
7.6.1 Feed- in tariffs (FIT)
7.6.2 Tradable permits
7.7 Bans, prohibitions and mandated requirements
7.8 Other ways to stimulate demand for resource productivity
7.8.1 Labelling
7.8.2 Indicative norms and standards
7.8.3 Green procurement
7.8.4 Linking eco-labels and procurement
7.9 Changing consumption behaviours
8 Considerations forFuture Policy
8.1 Leadership
8.2 Working with the institutional framework for decision making
8.3 Changing the institutional framework to facilitate future policy reform
8.4 Putting decoupling into practice – linking resource price rises to resource productivity gains
8.4.1 Options for pricing mechanisms
8.4.2 Broadening the Economic Discourse
8.4.3 Reducing bias against new investment by reducing uncertainty
8.4.4 Creating sufficient winners in favour of change
8.4.5 Taking account of potential losers in a policy mix
8.4.6 Creating new institutional arrangements
9 Conclusions
Annexes
References