Resource efficiency has become a major priority for countries across Europe but each appears to be approaching the issue in a different manner.
From efficient water use, to banishing fossil fuels, a European Environment Agency survey highlights the varied approaches to doing more with less. The European Union run agency highlights that over coming years societies will have to confront a huge challenge. While global population and economic production continue to grow, the resources supporting this upward spiral are finite. The United Nations (UN) recently noted that resource use will triple by 2050 if humans continue to use resources with the same degree of efficiency as we do currently.
The European Commission’s recent Resource Efficiency Roadmap states that while “demand for food, feed and fibre may increase by 70 per cent by 2050, 60 per cent of the world’s major ecosystems that help produce these resources have already been degraded or are used unsustainably.” Such unchecked resource use will increase environmental destruction and inequality; and ultimately lead to the disappearance of the natural and mineral resources which support modern societies.
To address this problem, countries across Europe have been working on strategies and policies to become more resource-efficient. When responding to the survey, countries cited several reasons for attempting to become more resource efficient, including concerns about environmental degradation, economic reasons or shortages of a critical resource such as water.
"Transforming Europe into a sustainable economy will require concerted action at all policy levels,” Janez Potočnik, European Commissioner for the Environment, said. “Member States have an essential role in getting resource efficiency measures across to businesses and citizens. This survey shows that we are not starting from scratch and illustrates how this transition can be done in so many ways to match different national contexts."
Some of the initiatives described by respondents include:
- Germany has targets to double the productivity of abiotic raw materials and energy by 2020.
- Denmark aims to be fossil fuel-free by 2050, and proposes using 40 per cent of animal manure for green energy by 2020. In the building sector, Denmark stipulates that all new buildings will use 75 per cent less energy than in 2009.
- Finland has a comprehensive plan to use natural resources ‘more intelligently’ and intends to increase energy efficiency by 20 per cent within a decade. The Nordic country also states that all public buildings that are new, under renovation or leased must reach exacting passive standards by 2015.
- Sweden aspires to recover at least 60 per cent of phosphorus compounds from wastewater for use on productive land by 2015.
- Hungary plans to reduce annual generation of waste by 20 per cent.
- Austria has a target to cut final energy consumption by 16 per cent by 2016.
- Latvia intends to become EU leader in preserving, increasing and sustainably using natural capital.
