Ecological Restructuring for Sustainable Development: Evidence from the Australian Economy

Abstract

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 restructuring toward modes of production, consumption and trade which are less environmentally intensive. So far, empirical studies of delinking and ecological restructuring have shown conditional improvements in a small number of industrialized countries—mostly high-income European economies. However, there are reasons to believe that the situation may vary in natural resource-based economies (such as Australia) due to differences in trade and economic structures and incentives. Achieving (global) sustainable development will hinge upon prospects for ecological restructuring in all nations. Some of the central concepts of ecological restructuring are reviewed and extended to an empirical search for signs of delinking in Australia. To do this, time series trends in physical quantities of seven environmentally significant factors are examined (i.e. energy, freight, cement, paper, steel, aluminium and plastic). The factors serve as proxies for economic activity of a particularly environmentally intensive nature. Three dimensions are analyzed: material-intensity, absolute throughput, and per capita throughput. The results show that promising trends in the 1980s have not persisted in the face of relatively high population growth and economic growth. Some implications for ecological restructuring as a basis for sustainable development in natural resource-based economies are discussed in light of evidence from Australia.