The Effect Of China's Waste Policy On The Decoupling Of Waste And Waste Emissions From GDP Growth

Over the past few decades the general trend has been that the amount of waste has grown alongside GDP growth and that economic growth is the key driving force behind the escalating waste volumes worldwide.As a response,the United Nations Environmental Programme(UNEP)urged nations to start decoupling economic growth rates from the rate of natural resource consumption and EU policy included the "decoupling principle" which aims to break the link between waste generation and GDP growth.However,the effect of China's waste policy on the decoupling of waste needs to be further explored and to address this emperical evidence gap,the purpose of this graduation study was to analyse if China's waste policy increases the decoupling of waste and waste emissions from GDP grovwth.This graduation study compared EU's and China's waste policy by a comparative analysis and evaluated the effectiveness of China's waste policy by a decoupling analysis.The comparative analysis showed that China's and EU's priority needs are different and therefore the prioritizing of waste policy topics and waste management practices at country level are different;this is reflected in the decoupling principle,the level on the waste hierarchy,the policy developments for specific waste streams,and the targets for the future.The decoupling analysis showed that China's waste policy increased the decoupling of waste and waste emissions from GDP growth;in particular China's 11th and 12th Five-Year Plans have been highly effective.The correlation between government policy and decoupling confirmed the hypothesis that guided this graduation study.