Policy packaging in support of absolute decoupling – a conceptual model

Global resource consumption has seen marked increases in the last century, in particular since the 1950s. In transforming these materials into products, food, infrastructure and energy functions for mobility and housing, significant environmental impacts are generated: ecosystems become ever more degraded, some 50 GtCO2e are emitted annually, and the global ecological footprint of human activities already requires more than 1.4 planet Earths. Through systematic literature review, we identified a number of relevant drivers that lock unsustainable resource use in at European and global level, such as: - consumption-based lifestyles (linked to social norms, increasing advertising efforts and rising aspirations) - short-term product and consumption cycles fuelling a take-make-dispose mentality - infrastructure design and planning locking in fossil fuel based structures and mobility decisions - volatile resource prices, which are (still) mostly ignorant of the true external costs of the resources’ use We need to improve our understanding of the complex linkages between different trends and drivers in order to enable forward-looking decision-making. This requires thinking in terms of policy mixes, i.e. combining different policy measures, targeting different or the same trends and drivers. As knowledge on policy packaging is only starting to build up, we will develop a conceptualisation for resource policy packaging and roadmapping. This conceptualisation will have to take into account a) the need to investigate and mitigate potential negative consequences of policy measures aiming at achieving main environmental objectives. b) A time-dynamic roadmapping of policies, i.e. policy instruments packed in chronological order allowing for a transition pathway towards more ambitious resource policies. We will present the conceptual model for policy mixing reflected on in the FP7-research project DYNAMIX (http://dynamix-project.eu/).