DECOUPLING ECONOMIC GROWTH FROM NATURAL RESOURCE USE AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS IN CROATIA

The economy of most countries is driven by the paradigm of maximising economic growth, which ultimately depends on natural resources. Nevertheless, available natural resources are limited, especially given the more intense worldwide production and consumption. To evaluate economic growth as an increase in gross domestic product (GDP) and depletion of natural resources or environmental impacts such as extinction of species, pollution and climate change, a decoupling assessment was performed. In this paper, decoupling is discussed from the perspective of global drive to continuously increase GDP and the set of Material flow accounts indicators, including an analysis of economy decoupling from the most important environmental air pollutants in Croatia. This paper also provides an assessment of the resource productivity in Croatia and EU-28. According to the data presented here, it can be concluded that decoupling economic growth from the consumption of materials and resource productivity presents a major challenge for Croatia, while decoupling economic growth from air emissions has a desirable trend of absolute decoupling. The way natural resources are used and managed has economic, environmental and social consequences that often extend beyond national borders. Therefore, this integrated economic, resource and environmental analysis of decoupling could be a strong basis for sustainable development management of national, European and global economies and societies.