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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