Ecological restructuring for sustainable development: evidence from the Australian economy

The possibility of reconciliation between economic growth and environmental quality has been foreshadowed by several influential reports over the last decade. The potential basis for reconciliation lies in delinking economic growth from material and energy throughput, especially through ecological r estructuring toward modes of production, consumption and trade which are le ss environmentally intensive. So far, empirical studies of delinking and ec ological restructuring have shown conditional improvements in a small numbe r of industrialized countries-mostly high-income European economies. Howeve r, there are reasons to believe that the situation may vary in natural reso urce-based economies (such as Australia) due to differences in trade and ec onomic structures and incentives. Achieving (global) sustainable developmen t will hinge upon prospects for ecological restructuring in all nations. So me of the central concepts of ecological restructuring are reviewed and ext ended to an empirical search for signs of delinking in Australia. To do thi s, time series trends in physical quantities of seven environmentally signi ficant factors are examined (i.e, energy, freight, cement, paper, steel, al uminium and plastic). The factors serve as proxies for economic activity of a particularly environmentally intensive nature. Three dimensions are anal yzed: material-intensity, absolute throughput, and per capita throughput. T he results show that promising trends in the 1980s have not persisted in th e face of relatively high population growth and economic growth. Some impli cations for ecological restructuring as a basis for sustainable development in natural resource-based economies are discussed in light of evidence fro m Australia. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.