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Two points

Two points. From local to global consumer – the challenge of rising and unsustainable consumption What can we do to reach sustainable consumption and production in Europe? Policies & tools. From local to global consumer – the challenge of rising and unsustainable consumption.

danielreese
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Two points

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  1. Two points • From local to global consumer – the challenge of rising and unsustainable consumption • What can we do to reach sustainable consumption and production in Europe? Policies & tools

  2. From local to global consumer – the challenge of rising and unsustainable consumption

  3. Unsustainable consumption and production • Many environmental pressures are growing: GHG emissions, water and air pollution, land use, resource use, waste amounts etc. • Impacts are growing in Europe - and in other regions of the world • Impacts from all phases of the production – consumption chain

  4. World trade is a driving force of resource and energy consumption Source: WTO, 2003: Growth of world trade. World merchandise exports (volume index = value deflated by unit value).

  5. EU-25 use of world biocapacity compared to population share Source: EEA/GFN, 2005: Global ecological overshoot

  6. Decoupling resource use from economic growth? Relative - not absolute Decoupling resource use from GDP in EU15 GDP Energy cons. DMC GHG EMC • Material consumption in EU25 amounts to 16.5 t per person per year on average in EU25 (all fossil fuels, minerals and biomass)

  7. Europe’s footprint and biocapacity (per capita) Source: EEA/GFN, 2005: Europe’s ecological footprint and biocapacity

  8. Footprint by component (EU-25) • The biocapacity necessary for coping with CO2 emissions from fossil fuel and generation of energy makes up more than 50% of the total footprint

  9. European consumption patterns are changing • Household expenditure projected to double by 2030

  10. Energy consumption by sector (EU-25) Services, agric. etc Households Industry Transport

  11. What can we do to reach sustainable consumption and production in Europe? Policies & tools

  12. Act integrated • Global responsibility not to destroy other regions of the world (Rio, Johannesburg and Marrakech) • Re-inforce public and private sector expenditure on research and development in the environment domain to help Europe compete globally • More environmental integration needed in sectors • Technological improvements are necessary - but not sufficient. The benefits include Europe’s economy becoming more resource efficient – EU-10 already has the scope to improve efficiency by a factor of 4 to EU-15 levels

  13. Act integrated (cont.) • Design long-term, coherent policies that shift market signals towards sustainable production and consumption • Environmental tax reform: From taxing the ”goods” (employment) to taxing the ”bads” (resource use and environmental damage) • Improve institutional set-ups to design and implement integrated approaches. Such set-ups can be as important as policies themselves (ex. effectiveness of UWWTD in selected countries in Europe).

  14. Example: Improving energy and resource productivity • Labour costs constitute about 20% of total costs in manufacturing in EU-25. Material and energy costs can be up to 50% Labour productivity Materials productivity Energy productivity

  15. Example:Environmental tax reform in the EU 1995 - 2003 Energy taxes Labour taxes Energy consumption/GDP Source: Eurostat

  16. Example: Tax bases in EEA-17 (2004)

  17. Example: Progress with urban waste water treatment

  18. We need tools to diagnose society’s health • Better and complementary methods for measuring the extent and impacts of our society’s use of nature • The EEA and its Scientific Committee want to help further develop the Ecological Footprint (EF), Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production (HANPP), and relevant elements of the System of Environmental and Economic Accounts (SEEA). • We consider it as a package, carefully managed and communicated, that such methods and indicators can best serve to improve our understanding of how human population use nature and the impacts that result

  19. To conclude • Consumption growth outweighs efficiency gains: Key environmental impacts grow • We have shifted our ecological demand to other countries while safeguarding more of our own ecological resources in Europe • Market-based instruments and environmental tax reform needed to achieve sustainable consumption and production are necessary but not sufficient. • We need better tools to diagnose the health of society. Further information: http://www.eea.europa.eu Gorm. Dige@eea.eu.int

  20. The European Environment Agency (EEA) • EU institution in Copenhagen since 1994 • Provide decision-makers with information needed for sound and effective policies to protect the environment and support sustainable development • 32 member countries: EU-25, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein; Switzerland

  21. The European Environment – State and outlook 2005 report on the web • Full report – one pdf file per chapter • Executive summary in 25 languages • Press release in 25 languages • Speeches • Press conference (video) • Flash animation • Powerpoint presentationwww.eea.eu.int

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