IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jotrge/v57y2016icp134-144.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Decoupling transport from economic growth: Extending the debate to include environmental and social externalities

Author

Listed:
  • Loo, Becky P.Y.
  • Banister, David

Abstract

The concept of decoupling embraces both immaterialisation and dematerialisation, by referring to the general delinking of environmental harm from economic production. This paper extends the theoretical debate and methodology on decoupling in transport to cover environmental (e.g. carbon) and social (e.g. fatalities) issues as well as the economic dimensions (e.g. income growth and transport activities). The typology developed here details the concepts of absolute and relative decoupling in a strong and weak version. This typology is then applied to explore the potential and the reality of transport decoupling in 15 major countries over the period since 1990, when concerns over the global environment and social issues have become a central part of the sustainable development agenda, through the measurement of changes in all three of the elements of sustainable development (economic, environmental and social). Two key transport externalities, carbon dioxide emissions and traffic fatalities, are studied, as these represent examples of environmental and social costs associated with increased levels of mobility. These 15 key countries included both developed and developing countries, and they together account for the majority of the global economy, carbon emissions and a substantial proportion of transport fatalities. The results show that decarbonisation of the transport sector has proved more difficult to achieve in the 15 countries over the 22years than the reduction in the levels of transport-related fatalities. Nevertheless, there is progress being made. Decoupling has taken place in both developed and developing countries, though the experiences vary in terms of timing (earlier vs more recent), consistency (stable vs variable), form (absolute vs relative) and magnitude (strong vs weak). Recoupling effects are limited. Transport has proved to be the most difficult sector to make more sustainable, as it is growing so fast and as it is necessary to support economies and lifestyles. Yet through combining measures of economic (e.g. income), environmental (e.g. carbon) and social (e.g. fatalities) wellbeing, it has been possible to identify positive trends in decoupling transport at the national level, as measured through relative decoupling. The much harder objective of an absolute decoupling is only just beginning to take place, but this must be seen as the primary objective in moving towards sustainability in the transport sector.

Suggested Citation

  • Loo, Becky P.Y. & Banister, David, 2016. "Decoupling transport from economic growth: Extending the debate to include environmental and social externalities," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 134-144.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jotrge:v:57:y:2016:i:c:p:134-144
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2016.10.006
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096669231630607X
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2016.10.006?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. de Bruyn, S. M. & van den Bergh, J. C. J. M. & Opschoor, J. B., 1998. "Economic growth and emissions: reconsidering the empirical basis of environmental Kuznets curves," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 161-175, May.
    2. Grossman, G.M & Krueger, A.B., 1991. "Environmental Impacts of a North American Free Trade Agreement," Papers 158, Princeton, Woodrow Wilson School - Public and International Affairs.
    3. Law, Teik Hua & Noland, Robert B. & Evans, Andrew W., 2011. "The sources of the Kuznets relationship between road fatalities and economic growth," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 355-365.
    4. Loo, Becky P.Y. & Li, Linna, 2012. "Carbon dioxide emissions from passenger transport in China since 1949: Implications for developing sustainable transport," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 464-476.
    5. Tapio, Petri, 2005. "Towards a theory of decoupling: degrees of decoupling in the EU and the case of road traffic in Finland between 1970 and 2001," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 137-151, March.
    6. Narayan, Paresh Kumar & Narayan, Seema, 2010. "Carbon dioxide emissions and economic growth: Panel data evidence from developing countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 661-666, January.
    7. Stern, David I. & Common, Michael S. & Barbier, Edward B., 1996. "Economic growth and environmental degradation: The environmental Kuznets curve and sustainable development," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 24(7), pages 1151-1160, July.
    8. Becky P.Y. Loo, 2000. "An Application of Canonical Correlation Analysis in Regional Science: TheInterrelationships Between Transport and Development in China's Zhujiang Delta," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 143-171, February.
    9. Cravioto, Jordi & Yamasue, Eiji & Okumura, Hideyuki & Ishihara, Keiichi N., 2013. "Road transport externalities in Mexico: Estimates and international comparisons," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 63-76.
    10. Jaunky, Vishal Chandr, 2011. "The CO2 emissions-income nexus: Evidence from rich countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 1228-1240, March.
    11. Ausubel, Jesse H, 1995. "Technical progress and climatic change," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 23(4-5), pages 411-416.
    12. Stead, D., 2001. "Transport intensity in Europe -- indicators and trends," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 29-46, January.
    13. Tapio, Petri & Banister, David & Luukkanen, Jyrki & Vehmas, Jarmo & Willamo, Risto, 2007. "Energy and transport in comparison: Immaterialisation, dematerialisation and decarbonisation in the EU15 between 1970 and 2000," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 433-451, January.
    14. Loo, Becky P.Y. & Li, Linna & Psaraki, Voula & Pagoni, Ioanna, 2014. "CO2 emissions associated with hubbing activities in air transport: an international comparison," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 185-193.
    15. Savage, Ian, 2013. "Comparing the fatality risks in United States transportation across modes and over time," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 9-22.
    16. Wang, S.S. & Zhou, D.Q. & Zhou, P. & Wang, Q.W., 2011. "CO2 emissions, energy consumption and economic growth in China: A panel data analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(9), pages 4870-4875, September.
    17. Niu, Shuwen & Ding, Yongxia & Niu, Yunzhu & Li, Yixin & Luo, Guanghua, 2011. "Economic growth, energy conservation and emissions reduction: A comparative analysis based on panel data for 8 Asian-Pacific countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 2121-2131, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Haouas, Ilham & Hoang, Thi Hong Van, 2019. "Economic growth and environmental degradation in Vietnam: Is the environmental Kuznets curve a complete picture?," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 197-218.
    2. Muhammad Bilal Khan & Hummera Saleem & Malik Shahzad Shabbir & Xie Huobao, 2022. "The effects of globalization, energy consumption and economic growth on carbon dioxide emissions in South Asian countries," Energy & Environment, , vol. 33(1), pages 107-134, February.
    3. Rabeh Khalfaoui & Aviral Kumar Tiwari & Usman Khalid & Muhammad Shahbaz, 2023. "Nexus between carbon dioxide emissions and economic growth in G7 countries: fresh insights via wavelet coherence analysis," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 66(1), pages 31-66, January.
    4. Audi, Marc & Ali, Amjad, 2018. "Determinants of Environmental Degradation under the Perspective of Globalization: A Panel Analysis of Selected MENA Nations," MPRA Paper 85776, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Roxana Pincheira & Felipe Zuniga, 2021. "Environmental Kuznets curve bibliographic map: a systematic literature review," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(S1), pages 1931-1956, April.
    6. C. Seri & A. de Juan Fernandez, 2021. "The relationship between economic growth and environment. Testing the EKC hypothesis for Latin American countries," Papers 2105.11405, arXiv.org.
    7. Balsalobre-Lorente, Daniel & Shahbaz, Muhammad & Roubaud, David & Farhani, Sahbi, 2018. "How economic growth, renewable electricity and natural resources contribute to CO2 emissions?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 356-367.
    8. Barra, Cristian & Zotti, Roberto, 2016. "Investigating the impact of national income on environmental pollution. International evidence," MPRA Paper 74149, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Muhammad Shahbaz & Avik Sinha, 2019. "Environmental Kuznets curve for CO2emissions: a literature survey," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 46(1), pages 106-168, January.
    10. Al Mamun, Md. & Sohag, Kazi & Hannan Mia, Md. Abdul & Salah Uddin, Gazi & Ozturk, Ilhan, 2014. "Regional differences in the dynamic linkage between CO2 emissions, sectoral output and economic growth," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 1-11.
    11. Priscilla Massa-Sánchez & Luis Quintana-Romero & Ronny Correa-Quezada & María de la Cruz del Río-Rama, 2020. "Empirical Evidence in Ecuador between Economic Growth and Environmental Deterioration," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-20, January.
    12. Cristian Barra & Roberto Zotti, 2018. "Investigating the non-linearity between national income and environmental pollution: international evidence of Kuznets curve," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 20(1), pages 179-210, January.
    13. Atwi, Majed & Barberán, Ramón & Mur, Jesús & Angulo, Ana, 2018. "CO2 Kuznets Curve Revisited: From Cross-Sections to Panel Data Models," INVESTIGACIONES REGIONALES - Journal of REGIONAL RESEARCH, Asociación Española de Ciencia Regional, issue 40, pages 169-196.
    14. Sugiawan, Yogi & Managi, Shunsuke, 2016. "The environmental Kuznets curve in Indonesia: Exploring the potential of renewable energy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 187-198.
    15. Ahmad, Najid & Du, Liangsheng, 2017. "Effects of energy production and CO2 emissions on economic growth in Iran: ARDL approach," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 521-537.
    16. C. Seri & A. de Juan Fernández, 2023. "CO2 emissions and income growth in Latin America: long-term patterns and determinants," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(5), pages 4491-4524, May.
    17. Buhari DOĞAN & Osman DEĞER, 2018. "The role of economic growth and energy consumption on CO2 emissions in E7 countries," Theoretical and Applied Economics, Asociatia Generala a Economistilor din Romania / Editura Economica, vol. 0(2(615), S), pages 231-246, Summer.
    18. Mezghani, Imed & Ben Haddad, Hedi, 2017. "Energy consumption and economic growth: An empirical study of the electricity consumption in Saudi Arabia," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 145-156.
    19. Kurniawan, Robi & Managi, Shunsuke, 2018. "Coal consumption, urbanization, and trade openness linkage in Indonesia," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 576-583.
    20. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Mahalik, Mantu Kumar & Shah, Syed Hasanat & Sato, João Ricardo, 2016. "Time-varying analysis of CO2 emissions, energy consumption, and economic growth nexus: Statistical experience in next 11 countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 33-48.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jotrge:v:57:y:2016:i:c:p:134-144. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-transport-geography .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.