Assessing the environmental impacts of consumption and production: 1 June 2010 International Panel on the Sustainable Use of Natural Resources 1 Priority Products and materials
Assessing the environmental impacts of consumption and production:
1 June 2010
International Panel on the Sustainable Use of Natural Resources
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Priority Products and materials
Assessing the Environmental Impacts of Consumption and Production - priority products and materials
A key question for the Resource Panel:
All economic activity takes place in a limited, natural world……so what economic activities contribute most to the use of natural resources and the generation of pollution?
Process:Based on an extensive literature reviewPrepared by the Environmental Impacts Working GroupCross-checked via intensive Resource Panel- and Peer review
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A five step approach:
1. Relevant Impacts - Which key environmental and resource pressures need to be considered?
2. Production perspective - What are the main contributing economic sectors?
3. Consumption perspective - What main consumption activities drive economic processes and impacts?
4. Material use perspective - What material inputs into the economy drive most impacts?
5. Outlook and conclusions – what are common denominators?
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Which key environmental and resource pressures need to be considered?
Step 1: Relevant Impacts4
Critical impacts and resource uses: 3 areas
1. Ecosystem healthMillennium Ecosystem
Assessment
2. Human healthWHO Burden of disease
3. Resource provision capabilityGeneral literature review –
authorative assessment is lacking
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Conclusions: most relevant pressures and impacts
Climate changeHabitat change (land and water use) Eutrophication (overfertilisation by nitrogen and phosphorus)Human and ecotoxicity
Urban and regional air pollutionIndoor air pollutionOther toxic emissions
Resource useFossil fuels and some metalsUnsustainable fishing practices
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What are the main contributing economic sectors?
Step 2: Production Perspective7
Why this assessment? How was it done?
Production perspective: looks at direct emissions and primary resource use of economic production sectorsInforms policy and producers where clean technologies are most needed
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Production perspective: Selected results
Global warmingEnergy productionIndustryForestryAgricultureBuildingsTransport
Eutrophication, aquatic toxicity: Agriculture, energyHuman toxicity: broad set of sourcesResource use
Water, land: agricultureFisheries: fish
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Greenhouse gas emissions
Eutrophication
Production perspective: conclusions
Processes involving fossil fuel combustionElectricity productionRoad transportManufacturing industriesBuildings
AgricultureFisheries
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What main consumption activities drive economic processes and impacts?
Step 3: Consumption Perspective11
Why this Assessment? How was it done?
Consumption perspective: looks at life cycle impacts of final consumptionInforms policy and consumers onareas of desirable shifts to:
low impact productssustainable life styles
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Final consumption causes impacts over the full life cycle
What is final consumption?
Final consumptioncategories
HouseholdsGovernmentProduction of capital goods
Dominant categoriesHouseholds (>60% of impacts and final expenditure)
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Greenhouse gas emissions by final consumption category by region, 2001
Life cycle impacts driven by household consumption
Energy and greenhouse gas emissions: > 70% caused by
FoodHousing and electricalappliancesMobility
Eutrophication, water and land use: food dominates
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Life cycle greenhouse gas emissions by household consumption category
Government and capital goods
Studies only available for EuropeGovernment expenditure is dominated by
Public administrationEducationHealth
Capital investment is dominatedby:
ConstructionTransportMachinery
15Life cycle impacts by government expenditure
Life cycle impacts by capital good production
Influence of income
Doubling of householdconsumptionexpenditure gives80% more CO2
This picture holds forall final consumptioncategories
16CO2 emissions versus expenditure by consumption category, 2001
Relevance of imports and exports
Trade becomes more and more important
Is now over 20% of Global GDP‘Pollution embodied in trade’ is now 20-30 % of domestic pollution
ImplicationsPollution for making productsconsumed in the West increasingly takes place in developing countries
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Trends in macro-economic parameters (1990=100)
CO2 emissions in imports / exports versus domestic emissions, 2001
Conclusions
The following final consumptoin categoriesdrive more than 70% of impacts
FoodMobilityHousing (including energy using products)
Impacts rise with incomeThe issue of ‘pollution embodied in trade’becomes more and more relevant
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What material inputs into the economy drive most impacts?
Step 4: Material use perspective19
Why this assessment? How was it done?
Material useperspective: types of materials used and their life cycleimpactsInforms policy and producers where a shift in material base can contribute to lower impacts
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Potential problems of individual material groups
Biotic materialsHabitat change and overexploitationPollution in agricultural processes
Fossil fuel materialsEmissions in combustion
MetalsSome are toxicHigh energy use for refining
Construction mineralsUsed in large quantitiesOften not scarceUsually low impact (except cement)
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Insights from Environmentally weighted Material Consumption
Construction mineralsconstitute the largestmaterial flows
High volumeBut low impacts per kg
Environmental impacts are dominated by
Agricultural productsFossil fuelsPlastics and metals (to a lesser extent)
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Relative contribution of finished materials groups to total mass flow, climate change, and
environmental problems (EU27+Turkey, 2000)
Step 5: Outlook and conclusions 23
Conclusions: converging perspectives
The production, consumption and materialsperspective agree on the relevance of:
Agriculture and food consumption(Consumption) processes engaging fossil fuels
MobilityHousing and energy using productsManufacturing
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Outlook: growth as usual will enhance pressure
A doubling of income increases CO2 emissionsby 80%Economic growth in the South is essential to alleviate povertyReduction in the North is essential to make thispossible, by shifts to
Clean productionSustainable life styles and use of green productsNo or low impact materials
In short: a shift to a Green Economy
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