Is resource efficiency slipping off the agenda? Ariadna Rodrigo Friends of the Earth Europe November 2014

Overconsumption?

Global material consumption, Source: Green economies around the world? 2012, SERI

Absolute material consumption, 2008 Source: Green economies around the world? 2012, SERI

Like we should not focus only on GHGs…

...the focus should not be only on materials Materials Land & water

Measuring Resource Use Greenhouse gas emissions Water Abiotic materials (incl. fossil fuels) Biotic materials Land area

A container ship arrives in Felixstowe, UK Should we consider the ‘rucksack’ of resources – materials, land, water, greenhouse gas emissions-that went into making these products?... (Picture: Courtesy of the Port of Felixstowe)

The 4 footprints Land footprint Water footprint Carbon footprintMaterial footprint

The resource productivity indicator (GDP/RMC)

Example: oil  biofuels Materials bioticabiotic WaterLandGHG 2 nd generation ?

Example: coal  wind Materials bioticabiotic WaterLandGHG 1 st generation 2 nd generation

Conclusions The EU needs to take the lead on resource use. This would include: Standardising and agreeing the four indicators Publishing EU – and national – resource use figures every year. Develop resource use reduction targets for all member states. Creating new policies to reduce our resource use Incorporating resource use into the impact assessment of policy options

Thank you!