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Resource efficiency is rising up the European agenda, with the new Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik adopting it as one of his priorities. But what is resource efficiency – what’s the global impact of Europe’s resource use – and why isn’t the EU currently even measuring how much of the world’s resources we use?

This conference aimed to answer these questions.

Friends of the Earth Europe has been working with Sustainable Europe Research Institute in Vienna to try to come to a workable yet effective solution to the problem of how to measure Europe’s use of the world’s resources. We have proposed four resource use indicators: material use, water use, land use and GHG emissions.

This conference provided an opportunity to discuss the implication of these indicators on EU policymaking, and to highlight the benefits of monitoring and reducing our resource use.

This event was aimed at NGOs, academics and policymakers, and hosted by Chris Davies MEP and Sirpa Pietikäinen MEP.

Agenda (Full write-up of event can be found here)

9.30 Welcome from Co-Chair – Sirpa Pietikäinen MEP, Chair of GLOBE EU

9.40 Michael Warhurst, Resources and Consumption Campaign, Friends of the Earth Europe “Why the EU’s use of the world’s resources is important to us – and to the rest of the world”

9.55 Stefan Giljum, Head of Research Group "Sustainable Resource Use", Sustainable Europe Research Institute, Vienna “How we can measure the EU’s resource use in a way that is workable and effective”

10.15 Stephen Evans CEng, Professor of Life Cycle Engineering, Cranfield University
“Business benefits of understanding resource use”

10.45 Tim Rice, Biofuel Policy Officer, Actionaid – “A failure of impact assessment: the impacts of biofuel targets on Europe’s use of land in the developing world”

10.55 Response from Sirpa Pietikäinen MEP, Chair of GLOBE EU

11.00 Questions to the speakers

11.15 Response from the MEP panel, including Nessa Childers MEP, Chris Davies MEP and Claude Turmes MEP

• A response to what they have heard
• Questions for the panel from the audience
• Chair: Magda Stoczkiewicz, Director, Friends of the Earth Europe
  

Friends of the Earth Europe has recently released a new report calling for Europe to measure its resource use – not just materials, but also land, water and carbon footprints – and to incorporate resource use measurement in impact assessment.

To be kept in touch about our future work on this issue, please contact:

Becky Slater, Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland,
e-mail: becky.slater@foe.co.uk.

Friends of the Earth Europe campaigns for sustainable and fair societies and for the protection of the environment,
unites more than 30 national organisations with thousands of local groups
and is part of the world's largest grassroots environmental network, Friends of the Earth International.

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