Activities relevant to MFA in Australia Jenny Boshier Australian Government Department of the Environment and Heritage 14 - 15 June 2004

Information on Material Flows Material accounts produced Water (new account released May 2004) Minerals Forests Fish Energy and Greenhouse

Used in national SoE report Trends in direct material use Direct domestic consumption of materials Material flows over time, including hidden flows - 70% of Australia flows are hidden Australia is a major producer of both finished materials and intermediate material feed stocks and ores to the world markets We supply coal and non-ferrous metal ores and finished material. The impacts from this production occur in and are attributed to Australia event heough the uses and demands for these materials occur in overseas markets.

Components of total material flow in Australia Foran and Poldy (2000) Components of total material flow per person exports and domestic consumption, each disaggregated into direct material input and hidden flow

Trends in direct material use in Australia Foran and Poldy (2000) Link to population growth over time

Key materials for Australia Water Irregular supply – only 20% of Australia’s total runoff can be sustainably diverted Limited supply in major agricultural and urban areas Agriculture a major user of water – now 67%

Innovation to improve resource use efficiency Pricing signals to encourage efficient water use and allocation Pricing signals to discourage waste generation and to encourage reuse of materials CRC Resource Processing – partnership approach CSIRO Australian Stocks and Flows Framework

Data issues Reasonable disaggregated data in priority areas Effort focussed on collection of data that can address important policy questions Some important gaps (eg waste, some water use)

Summary Work focussed on resource and material level – our priority areas of environmental concern Lack of data is an issue in some priority areas Nature of Australian export economy distorts what the material flows show and generates challenges in how we address the hidden flows Focus on innovations and practical outcomes