Analysis of changes in eco-efficiency of production and consumption in Lithuania during the 1990 – 2006 year period ; Ekologinio gamybos ir vartojimo veiksmingumo pokyčių Lietuvoje 1990 – 2006 m. analizė

Sustainable production and consumption, as well as decoupling environmental impact from economy growth are one of the main goals for countries with transition economies. Lithuania, as other Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) countries experienced changes in political, social and economic life in relative short time after the collapse of Soviet Union. Because of an essentially reduced production, use of natural resources and environmental pollution decreased respectively. However, present pronounced growth of transition countries and demand for better quality of life could lead to the increase in material and energy consumption. Such increase would have two implications: firstly, increasing pressure on the environment and health in enlarged EU and could outweigh achievements in Western Europe, and secondly, such increase could impede to reach foreseen objectives to decouple resource consumption from economic growth. The aim of the research was to analyze the main trends of production and consumption and their environmental impact in Lithuania and to assess eco-efficiency of production and consumption and its main determinants. Research on eco-efficiency and the course of decoupling of environmental impact from economy growth in Lithuania is relatively rare and is mostly based on energy issues or covers only one sector. In this study, the eco-efficiency of production and consumption in Lithuania is analyzed jointly for the first time. For the better interpretation of ongoing eco-efficiency changes, the concept of double decoupling is presented. The progress in reduction of resource and environmental pollution intensity during transition period was estimated and the main factors of the eco-efficiency changes in production and consuption were assessed.