Regional analysis of decoupling economic growth and pollutant emmissions into the air in Ukraine

The main goal of this paper is to examine the occurrence of a decoupling emerging tendency between economic growth rates and pollutant emissions in Ukraine, based on a regional analysis. Results indicate that between 2000 and 2012 gross domestic product increased in real terms by three-quarters, while the volume emissions into the air only one-fourth. This suggests that the long-awaited decoupling of economic and pollution emissions growth has begun. However, there are huge regional variations in decoupling processes in the country, which is important to understand and explain. In this paper regional analysis is used to comparatively evaluate the progress made in regions across the country in decoupling pollution emissions from economic growth, as a way to achieve some findings with significant implications for regional development policy, not only in Ukraine but in other countries facing the same challenge. http://dx.doi.org/10.17127/got/2014.5.006 Data de submissao: 2014-03-28 Data de aprovacao: 2014-05-28 Data de publicacao: 2014-06-30