Central to the United Nations development is the notion of ‘decoupling’: the need to divorce economic growth from its ecological impact. Although the definition and the main concepts are clear, there are, however, different ways of operationalizing and measuring such relationship.Our finds show that these ways of measuring decoupling have several significant flaws because,
i) Decoupling measurement outcomes depends on if we use indicators measuring environmental pressure in consumption-based or production-based terms;
ii) Decoupling measurements outcomes are quite different for impacts (sink decoupling) and for natural resources (source decoupling)
iii) Decoupling performance varies according to the way GDP is calculated.
iv) Decoupling measurements are sensitive to the choice of base year;
v) Decoupling measurements outcomes change when population is considered;
We also study how well decoupling measures reflect progress towards sustainable use of natural resources in a finite planet. In this sense we will show that:
vi) Decoupling is a relative measure that overlooks absolute numbers
vii) Decoupling indicators are not measured against limits.
Our conclusions highlight the fact that indicators of decoupling do not track on-going progress towards sustainability in a finite planet. Rather, they disguise the persistent, if not deepening inequalities in the use of natural resources. They appear to show that high-income countries are decoupling their use of natural resources from GDP but hide the fact that these are precisely the countries that are consuming more raw materials.