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Resource Efficiency

What is Resource Efficiency?

Resource efficiency means using the Earth's limited resources in a sustainable manner. We depend on resources like metals, minerals, fuels, water, timber, fertile soil and clean air for our survival, and they all constitute vital inputs that keep our economy functioning.

What is the problem?

The supply of resources is limited, and our natural resource base is being eroded. Growing global demand is increasing pressure on the environment, and competition for many resources is increasing. Many natural resources are fundamental to our health, well-being and quality of life, so it is essential that we respect the natural limits of the planet's key ecosystems.

Europe relies on the rest of the world for resources like fuel and raw materials, and these resources are also embedded in products we import from outside the EU. Scarcities and volatile commodity prices can bring about instability in many regions of the world, so we need to look at the global picture.

How can these problems be remedied?

It is perfectly possible to produce more value with fewer inputs, to lessen our impact on the environment, and to consume in a more intelligent fashion. We can use more efficient alternatives instead of many of the current resources, and we can boost recycling, for example. But if European society is to become more resource efficient, millions of firms and consumers will need to be mobilised. Prices need to change to better reflect environmental and social costs: this would improve the economic system, providing the right incentives and price signals for producers and consumers. Most importantly, coherent public policies must be put in place to enable such a reform and push it forward.

What types of benefits can resource efficiency bring, apart from the obvious ones to the environmental and people's well-being?

Using resources more efficiently has clear economic benefits for companies: it improves productivity, reduces costs and enhances competitiveness, creating employment opportunities. The less firms and consumers are dependent on the availability of certain resources, the less vulnerable they are to supply constraints and volatile market prices. There are also many growth and employment opportunities in the provision of green technologies and services, in renewable energy provision, eco-industries and recycling, for example. Resource efficiency will profit other policies as well: wiser use of resources reduces greenhouse gas emissions and many other environmental and health problems.

What is the European Union doing?

Europe 2020 is the EU's growth strategy for the coming decade, pushing the EU to become a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy. Under the Europe 2020 strategy the flagship initiative for a resource-efficient Europe points the way towards sustainable growth and supports a shift towards a resource-efficient, low-carbon economy.

newOne of the building blocks of this initiative is the European Commission's Roadmap for a resource-efficient Europe, a Communication adopted on 20 September 2011:

The Roadmap builds upon and complements the other initiatives under the resource efficiency flagship, in particular the policy achievements towards a low carbon economy. It also takes into account progress made on the 2005 Thematic Strategy on the Sustainable Use of Natural Resources and the EU's strategy on sustainable development.

The Resource Efficiency Roadmap provides a framework in which future actions can be designed and implemented coherently. It sets out a vision for the structural and technological change needed up to 2050, with milestones to be reached by 2020. These milestones illustrate what will be needed to put Europe on a path to resource efficient and sustainable growth.

The Roadmap Communication proposes ways to increase resource productivity and decouple economic growth from resource use and its environmental impact. It explains how policies interrelate and build on each other. Areas where policy action can make a real difference are a particular focus, and specific bottlenecks like inconsistencies in policy and market failures are tackled to ensure that policies are all going in the same direction. Cross-cutting themes such as addressing prices that do not reflect the real costs of resource use and the need for more long-term innovative thinking are also in the spotlight. Key resources are analysed from a life-cycle and value-chain perspective. Nutrition, housing and mobility are the sectors responsible for most environmental impacts; actions in these areas are being proposed to complement existing measures.

Transforming the EU into a more resource efficient economy will require concerted action across a wide range of policies: the Commission proposes to launch a joint effort with stakeholders to work on defining the right indicators and targets for guiding actions and monitoring progress.

Public Consultation on a Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe

As part of the preparation of the Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe a public consultation was organised from 22 February to 22 April 2011 aiming at collecting the views of businesses, other stakeholders and the public at large on policy options for the Roadmap. The results of the public consultation and the inputs received can be found here.

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