Projects

Domestic material consumption remains a significant source of climate change, as identified by the United Nations within the sustainable development goals (SDG12). Ireland has consistently ranked high on the domestic material consumption level among the European Union member states. This makes the need to further explore the dynamics of the relationship between growth and domestic material consumption more expedient. This is more so, when considering countries with high levels of material consumption relative to those with low levels of material consumption. We find evidence suggesting that countries with high levels of domestic material consumption (Ireland included), as proxied by the resource productivity index, tend to have a relatively lower impact of material use on economic performance.