Introduction

Abstract

The perspectives on the future availability of natural resources are highly contested. The perceived risks of resource scarcity as well as the appropriate responses to mitigate these risks differ between stakeholders, industries, and countries (World Economic Forum 2014b). A report from the United Nations Environment Program indicates an increase in the extraction of materials between the years 1900 and 2005 particularly for minerals (by factor 34), ores and industrial minerals (by factor 27), and fossil energy (by factor 12) (United Nations Environment Program 2011). This was fueled by a rapid growth in demand which led to an increase in prices, and erased reductions in commodity prices over the last 100 years (World Economic Forum 2014b).