Decoupling of Economic Growth from Environmental Damage: A Theoretical Aspect

The relevance of the study is conditioned by the need for an in-depth investigation of decoupling as an indicator of the effectiveness of the state's implementation of the concept of sustainable development, which in the current trends of the world economy is dominant among countries. The purpose of the study is to improve and specify the theoretical foundations of decoupling economic growth from environmental damage. The methodological framework of the study included methods of empirical analysis, synthesis, induction, comparison, hypothetical-deductive method, as well as a systematic approach to the study of scientific papers of Ukrainian and foreign scientists, strategic environmental documents of authoritative international organisations on decoupling. The study identifies three content features of decoupling economic growth from environmental damage, related to the economic growth of the economic system and the environmental damage it causes, as well as two groups of factors of environmental damage: resource and environmental factors. The author has improved the definition of decoupling based on the analysis of existing definitions of this concept, by distinguishing them from common content features and their synthesis into a single whole. Types of decoupling and approaches to the classification of its degrees are considered: according to the method of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, as well as the author's method of P. Tapio. It was found that absolute decoupling constitutes a priority in the context of the state's implementation of the concept of sustainable development, as it meets the signs of decoupling and the basic principles of sustainable development identified in the course of the study. The study offers ways of effective development and intensification of decoupling processes within the framework of state implementation of the concept of sustainable development. The practical value of the obtained research results is related to their further application in the processes of strategic planning at the national level, as well as in the development of an economic mechanism to stimulate the decoupling of economic growth from environmental damage.