Brussels, 27/05/2011 (Agence Europe) - It is not only desirable but also possible to radically alter the way we use scarce resources, according to two reports presented in Brussels by the European Commission and the United Nations Environment Programme. Green Week, currently being held in Brussels, provided the opportunity, by happy coincidence just as the Commission is putting the final touches to its “Roadmap towards a resource efficient Europe” for the presentations. The reports, drafted by the International Resource Panel, call on legislators and policymakers to find ways of reducing resource-use and of increasing recycling.
The first report reveals the huge scope for increasing metal recycling rates: at present only 18 metals have a recycling rate of more than 50% and most do not even attain a 1% rate. Despite industry concerns over scarcity and high prices, certain crucial high-tech metals fall into the latter category. The report says, too, that recycling metals is 2-10 times more energy efficient than smelting metals from ore.
The second report, Decoupling natural resource use and environmental impacts from economic growth, underlines the need for radical decoupling of growth and resource use if we are to avoid a global resource crunch by 2050 (by which time, with a business-as-usual approach, annual resource consumption will have increased to 140 billion tonnes of minerals, ores, fossil fuels and biomass). It presents three scenarios, based on scientific evidence, for future consumption of resources. The most ambitious of the three calls on the developed world to reduce annual per capita use of resources by two thirds from the current level of 16 tonnes per year, with other countries remaining at today's levels. Resource consumption could then remain at 2000 levels.
Environment Commissioner Janez Potoènik said: “These reports underline the urgent need for a switch to a resource-efficient economy”. The roadmap being finalised by the Commission “sets a transformational agenda and prepares the ground for the steps ahead. We now need effective dialogue with the Member States, as important decisions will be required in areas such as tax reform and eliminating inefficient subsidies”, he stated.
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) stated that “achieving sustainable economic growth and generating decent employment, but in a way that keeps humanity's ecological footprint within planetary boundaries, is the challenge for this generation. Decoupling growth from natural resource use underpins that challenge and will be key to realizing a transition towards a low carbon, efficient Green Economy”. He added: “Innovation, including technological, fiscal and organisational innovation needs to be unleashed through smart and forward-looking public policies that support the aspirations of seven billion people, rising to over nine billion by 2050 in developed and developing economies alike. Europe has a key role to play in delivering the kinds of transformational partnerships and cooperative arrangements that ensure the fair and equitable access to resources for all people world-wide”.
The two reports are available online:
http: //http://www.unep.org/resourcepanel/Publications/Decoupling/tabid/56048/Default.aspx
http: //http://www.unep.org/resourcepanel/ (A.N./transl.rt)