Mr. Van Stoten from Business Europe referred to a new report entitled
"The world in 2025. Rising Asia and socio-ecological transition" ,
which can be viewed on Scribd.
He made an argument on this that the EU was too small to be able to
improve things much globally. Therefore, he reasoned, we need better global governance of raw materials.
Thomas Ruddy referred him to the Resource Panel that we had had presenting at the www.worldresourcesforum.org in
Davos Switzerland. Ruddy also explained the workshop on scarce metals initiated by Patrick Waeger, and the new study on the Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) of biofuels done with UNEP.
A
debate erupted on the advisability of imposing a Border Tax Adjustment
(BTA) to prevent carbon leakage if attempts to sign a post-Kyoto
agreement fail in Copenhagen in December.
Friends of the Earth Europe was represented on the panel by Michael Warhurst. He had a copy of SERI's new paper entitled "How to measure Europe's resource use: An analysis for Friends of the Earth Europe" is downloadable here in PDF.
It clearly differentiates between the Thematic Strategy on Natural
Resources (2005, renewal forthcoming in 2010) and the Raw Materials
Initiative (2008).
For a wider audience SERI has issued a more popular brochure with
FOEE, which criticizes the EU's Raw Materials Initiative. The report is
called OVERCONSUMPTION?
Our use of the world's natural resources. It
is downloadable here in PDF.
SERI is involved in research with the EIPOT
project on the Environmental Impact of Trade,
which has just issued its final report.
SERI's view is that the foremost goal of the EU should be
to increase resource efficiency dramatically, and to reduce
the demand for the consumption of raw materials
(through more recycling e.g.). Of course, that will not be able to
replace fully the imports into
Europe. Therefore, if it is important to ensure such access to raw
materials in other parts of the world, especially in developing
countries, then it should be done in strict adherence to ecological and
social sustainability standards.
!!! Dieses Dokument stammt aus dem ETH Web-Archiv und wird nicht mehr gepflegt !!!
!!! This document is stored in the ETH Web archive and is no longer maintained !!!