Decoupling Growth and Environmental Impact

An autumnal hat tip to Robbie Harris from Sherborne for spotting and sharing this interesting discussion piece from Chris Huhne in the Guardian. There are many drivers of the reduction in energy consumption per unit of GDP for the UK economy - among them technological change, a global shift of production to the East, along with sustained high energy prices. But some of the longer term trends look more favourable. Has the UK moved decisively from the peak of the Kuznets environmental curve?"The UK economy has doubled in real terms since 1985, but total energy consumption is exactly the same as it was in that year. Indeed, energy consumption has fallen since 1970 while the economy has nearly trebled in size."Is Huhne overly optimistic about prospects for sustainably green growth?Read the article here: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/...Data on energy trends from the ONS can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/energy-t...Guardian articles on the energy industry can be found here: http://www.theguardian.com/business/energy-industr...