TY - JOUR JF - Journal of Cleaner Production ID - discovery1406533 SP - 816 AV - public UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2010.08.016 A1 - Steger, S A1 - Bleischwitz, R KW - Drivers; Decoupling; MFA; Regression analysis IS - 8 TI - Drivers for the use of materials across countries Y1 - 2011/05// N1 - Copyright © 2010. This manuscript version is published under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial Non-derivative 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). This licence allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the work for personal and non-commercial use providing author and publisher attribution is clearly stated. Further details about CC BY licences are available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0. Access may be initially restricted by the publisher. EP - 826 SN - 0959-6526 N2 - This paper analyses drivers for resource use and material productivity acrosscountries. This is not only relevant in light of soaring raw material prices but also because EU policies, such as the ?Thematic Strategy on the Sustainable Use of Natural Resources? (COM [2005] 670), the EU Raw Materials Initiative (COM [2008] 699) and various similar policies internationally, seek to better manage materials along their life-cycle and across economies. In order to better understand the system dynamics of material use, our paper applies methodologies of material flow analysis and regression analysis to identify the major drivers for resource use and decoupling from GDP. Drivers are understood as those factors that exert influence on human activities to use resources. A panel data set is taken for the European Union for the years 1980?2000 (EU-15) and 1992?2000 (EU-25). The main drivers of resource use were found to be energy efficiency, new dwellings and roads construction activities. Shortcomings of the methodology are also discussed. VL - 19 ER -