Abstract
The increasing demand for raw materials will continue to exert pressure on resource availability and on the environment with all the negative consequences for the economy and society. The long term goals are the reduction of consumption on the one hand and a reduction of negative impacts of unavoidable resource use on the other. There are many approaches to increase resource efficiency, to reduce the absolute amount of resource use and to reduce the negative environmental impacts of resource use across product lifecycles. Many of these measures can be implemented on a national level. However as the world economy is very much integrated, an internationally coordinated policy will gain better results. Resource consuming and resource extracting countries should adopt a strategy of resource governance which seeks international agreement on global targets for natural resource extraction and consumption and coordinated measures for an increase of resource efficiency.
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Notes
- 1.
This term refers to the wide spatial distribution of raw materials due to the use of low quantities in a multitude of products.
- 2.
Limited does not mean necessarily limited in absolute terms. Resource availability is also limited by other factors such as low ore grade and thus prohibitively high mining costs, environmental concerns (including climate change), economical or geo-political constraints.
- 3.
For details see the Chap. 3.
- 4.
For a comprehensive overview on the rebound effect see, e.g., Jenkins et al. (2011).
- 5.
For further details see Chap. 10.
- 6.
For example, there are already projects from different car manufacturers who implement mobility concepts based on flexible car sharing in several European and US towns.
- 7.
For further details see, e.g. Chap. 14.
- 8.
For a deeper discussion of practical challenges of resource taxes see Eckermann et al. (2012).
- 9.
Already existing examples for international labels are the labels by the Marine Stewardship Council or the Forest Stewardship Council. Other labels as the “Energy Star” was designed for the US market but it is now widely used also in Europe.
- 10.
In an economic context the phenomenon of decreasing competition through high raw material extraction and export is called “Dutch disease”.
- 11.
See, e.g., Auty (2004) who finds that in the last decades the economies of resource-abundant nations have grown much slower than those of resource-poor nations.
- 12.
For diamonds such a scheme already exists (Kimberly process). The German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources is currently working on a pilot project about certification of coltan, cassiterite, wolframite and gold in Central Africa (BGR 2009).
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Kanthak, J., Golde, M. (2014). Requirements of an International Natural Resource Policy. In: Angrick, M., Burger, A., Lehmann, H. (eds) Factor X. Eco-Efficiency in Industry and Science, vol 29. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5706-6_12
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