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Two points
1. From local to global consumer – the challenge of rising and unsustainable consumption
2. What can we do to reach sustainable consumption and production in Europe?
Policies & tools
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From local to global consumer – the challenge of rising and unsustainable consumption
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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).
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EU-25 use of world biocapacity compared to population share
Source: EEA/GFN, 2005: Global ecological overshoot
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Decoupling resource use from economic growth? Relative - not absolute
Decoupling resource use from GDP in EU15
Material consumption in EU25 amounts to 16.5 t per person per year on average in EU25 (all fossil fuels, minerals and biomass)
GDP
Energy cons.
DMCEMC GHG
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Europe’s footprint and biocapacity (per capita)
Source: EEA/GFN, 2005: Europe’s ecological footprint and biocapacity
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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
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European consumption patterns are changing
Figure 2.1. Household expenditure per capita in EU15 Member States
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
14000
1990 1995 2000 2002
Euro
/capita (
1995 c
onsta
nt
prices)
Other goods and services
Health
Recreation, culture andrestaurantsTransport andcommunicationHousing
Clothing
Food and drink
Source: Eurostat 2005 Note: Data for Denmark; Germany; Greece ; France; Ireland; Italy; Netherlands; Austria; Portugal; Finland; United Kingdom (1995 Euro constant prices)
Household expenditure projected to double by 2030
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Energy consumption by sector (EU-25)
Services, agric. etc
Households
Industry
Transport
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What can we do to reach sustainable consumption
and production in Europe?
Policies & tools
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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
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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).
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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
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Example:Environmental tax reform in the EU 1995 - 2003
Source: Eurostat
Green tax shift EU-25, 1995-2003
Energy taxes
Labour taxes
Energy consumption/GDP
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Example: Tax bases in EEA-17 (2004)Austria Belgium Denmark Finland France Germany Greece Iceland Ireland Italy Lux'burg NL Norw ay Portugal Spain Sw eden UK
Air/EnergyCO2*SO2NOxFuelsS in fuels
TransportCar sales and useDiff. annual car tax
WaterWater eff luents
WasteWaste-endDangerous w aste
NoiseAviation noise
ProductsTyresBeverage cont.PackagingBagsPesticidesCFCsBatteriesLight bulbsPVC/phtalatesLubrication oilFertilisersPaper, boardSolvents
ResourcesRaw materials
in 1996 new in 2000 new in 2004
Sources, including:EEA (2000) Environmental taxes - Redent developments in tools for integration, CopenhagenOECD/EU database for environmental taxes (http://www1.oecd.org/env/policies/taxes/index.htm)
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Example: Progress with urban waste water treatment
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We need tools to diagnose society’s health
Better and complementary methods for measuring the extent and impacts of our society’s use of natureThe 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
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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. [email protected]
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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
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The European Environment – State and outlook 2005 report on the web
Full report – one pdf file per chapterExecutive summary in 25 languagesPress release in 25 languagesSpeechesPress conference (video)Flash animationPowerpoint presentation
www.eea.eu.int