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three times higher than in 1970. This increase in DMC is likely to increase
gradually as economies keep growing and consuming more goods if the
appropriate policies are not implemented. This is because a similar trend is
observed in GDP as well.

Figure 5: Global Domestic Material Consumption (DMC), Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) and Material Intensity (DMC/GDP)
Source: Adapted by the authors from IRP (2020) and World Bank (WB) (2022)

According to IRP (2020), greenhouse gas emissions due to material
production have more than doubled since 1995. Thus, the share of global
greenhouse gas emissions in material production between 1995 and 2015 rose
from 15% to 23%. In this regard, the efficient use of materials is increasingly
seen as an important strategy for the mitigation of industrial emissions.
It is also argued that such strategies will decrease the demand for energy-
intensive materials without sacrificing welfare, and thus will contribute greatly
to resource efficiency and circular economy. In the literature, to evaluate the
extent of material efficiency, one of the most frequently used indicators is the
share of material use in GDP (material intensity) (Zhang et al, 2018). As seen
clearly in the right panel of Figure 5, global material intensity is decreasing
from 1970 to 2019. In other words, material consumption per GDP has
been increasing since 1970. However, as it has largely been overlooked as
a mitigation policy, its contribution to the decoupling of industrial emissions
from economic growth remains low (IPCC, 2022b).

91 Journal of Environment, Urbanization and Climate