Concept
Decoupling Thesis
SustainabilityClimate
The claim that economic growth can be decoupled from resource consumption.
The core argument of technology optimists and mainstream environmental economics: with enough efficiency, grid decarbonisation, and AI-driven optimisation, growth can be decoupled from resource use. The thesis is internally consistent — but holds only while the system's total scale stays roughly stable or grows linearly. Against exponential scale, the promise of decoupling is perpetually postponed by fresh waves of demand before any saturation point is reached.
Essays that develop this concept
Related concepts
- Jevons ParadoxWhen a technology that uses a resource becomes more efficient, total consumption of that resource rises rather than falls.
- Rebound EffectEvery unit of efficiency saving is refilled by new demand and new capacity.
- Commitment DebtToday's sustainability pledges piling into a stock of obligations for the future, whose enforcement remains uncertain.
- Washing EconomyA system in which virtue becomes a marketing budget — discourse, not action, generates revenue.