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Europe's land imports and their impact on the

rest of the world

Dr Michael Warhurst, Resources & Consumption Programme

Friends of the Earth EuropeMay 2012

Contents

• Measuring Europe’s resource use• Land footprint – what it is & how big is

Europe’s• Impacts of our land use around the world• What next?

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Introduction

• Europe depends on imported resources from a wide range of countries around the world

• The scale of our consumption has major environmental and social impacts– These imports also cost us a lot of money

• This is widely accepted– The problem is establishing what polices are needed to deal with it

• Friends of the Earth has been working to develop a policy framework – starting by establishing what resources we actually use....– Not just materials (the tonnes we import), but what other resources this

import involves...3

What is our resource use?

• We started an investigation, with partners in Austria (Sustainable Europe Research Institute)– Key assumptions included: we must include our use of resources

from everywhere in the world, but the system must be reliable and achievable.

• We came up with four aspects of our resource use that it was crucial for us to measure– Our overall use of materials (both biological & mineral)– Our land footprint – the actual area of land needed– Our water footprint – the water needed for our consumption– Our carbon footprint – greenhouse gas emissions, wherever

they happen in the world.• See our briefing for a simple introduction [1]

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The global context

• Despite efforts to increase resource efficiency in Europe, our resource use continues to increase– Increases in efficiency are outweighed by increases in

consumption– Other developed economies are showing similar patterns

• Resource use is increasing rapidly in several less developed economies – notably India and China

• Future improvements in quality of life in other developing economies – something we should be aiming for – will also increase resource use

• Global population is still increasing

• > Global resource use is increasing rapidly

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Water footprint

• Closely linked to land (and soil)• Many imported goods – particularly from

agriculture – require water in their production• This ‘Water Footprint’ [WF] from imported

products can be more significant than water use within a country, e.g.:– “62% of the total UK WF is accounted for by water

from other nations” [2]

• In some areas water availability isn’t all that important – but in many places it is.

7Source: Water Footprint Network, 2009 - http://www.waterfootprint.org/

It’s not just what’s in the cup...

8Source: Water Footprint Network, 2009 - http://www.waterfootprint.org/

Imports and exports of virtual water, 2000

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Land footprint

‘Buy land, they’re not making it any more’Mark Twain

• European consumption depends on land outside Europe for e.g.– Producing food – and feed for livestock in Europe– Producing textiles, minerals, fuels etc

• If we use more land, what – and who -were on it before?

What is land footprint?

• Land footprint is the simple area, in hectares of land:– Required to produce a product– Used by an organisation (including in its the supply

chain)– Used by a country or region

• Land footprint is a top-level resource use indicator– It facilitates monitoring and development of targets– It encourages and assists in deeper analysis of land

use10

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Europe’s land footprint

• We published a new report in 2011, looking at Europe’s ‘Land Footprint’ [3]– This study, done by Sustainable Europe Research Institute

(SERI) in Vienna, used trade and FAO data in order to show land used within Europe and land imported into Europe.

• The methodology was similar to the approach used in carbon and water footprint studies

• The results provide a snapshot of the way ‘virtual’land moves around the world:

Europe’s land trade

Key EU land footprint facts

• 60% of the land that the EU uses comes from outside the EU

• The EU average land consumption is 1.3 hectares per capita– China & India less than 0.4 hectares per capita.

• Germany & the UK have the 3rd & 4th highest land import in the world– Around 80 million hectares each– More than 3x the surface area of the UK.

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Land footprint – beyond the top line figures

• The land footprint approach allows you to have more detailed information than just the top line figure– The information will depend on the level being

examined & the methodology, e.g. approaches to national trade vs examining individual products.

• For example, more detailed data is available in the SERI/FOEE study from 2011:

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UK: Where land comes from per capita (x10 m²)

Ocean

iaAsia Nort

h Ameri

caLa

tin Ameri

caEuro

peAfric

aTo

tal

Crop products 15 60 19 44 121 80 340

Animal products 35 53 9 49 146 107 399

Wood products 1 21 7 2 26 5 61

Clothing 5 120 5 7 6 9 153

Manufactured products 7 117 24 10 48 22 229

Construction 2 41 11 5 42 16 117

Service 17 107 24 23 82 45 299

Total 82 520 99 140 471 285 1597

2004

BL1

Slide 15

BL1 Analyse zu Konsum aus Africa: Animal products: kommt zu 94 % aus der Landkategorie GrazingCrop Products: 33 % Crops nec30 % Grazing23 % Vegetables, fruits, nuts

Crops nec enthält Land für:"Crops primary" - alles was in Paddy rice, wheat, cereal grains nec, vegetables, fruit, nuts, oilseed, sugar cane + sugar beet, plant based fibresschon enthalten ist. Barbara Lugschitz; 24/10/2011

Combining indicators

• Land footprint by itself gives useful information, but it is more powerful when combined with the other indicators– Carbon, Water, Materials

• This allows you to see trade offs, and to consider multiple aspects– Particularly useful in impact assessment of when

comparing approaches– E.g.: what happens if we move from oil to

biofuels?16

Example: oil biofuels

Materialsbiotic abiotic

Water Land GHG

2nd generation

?

Vegetables, soy and eggs

• Global 2000 (Friends of the Earth Austria) have been working with REWE Austria, using the resource indicators on food products

• Two examples– Vegetables – in greenhouses or outside– Eggs, with the key variable being the Soy used to

feed the chicken

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Land & carbon footprints of vegetables, eggs

Land footprint in scenario analysis

• Research paper “Bioplastics in the context of competing demands for agricultural land in 2050” [4]– Modeling future land use if there is a switch from oil

to bio for plastics & fuels– Analyses a range of scenarios

• Different productivities• Different levels of consumption• NB all assuming no biomass as energy source (only as

liquid fuel), no land to tobacco etc

What the scenario analysis finds....

• E.g. Mid-range productivity, high consumption:– The results for the HIGH consumption scenario here illustrate the impact

of uncontrolled growth in demand for fuel and materials .... It is unfeasible to suggest that the complete destruction of forest land to support food, fuel and plastics production provides a sustainable solution to meeting human needs.

Impacts of our land use around the world

• ‘Empty’ land is rather rare• Taking a hectare of land (or its output) has

an impact– regardless of how sustainably that individual

hectare is farmed– I.e. If the EU takes all the ‘sustainable’ land in a

country, everyone else must use the rest.

• Land use has impacts, in particular on:– Biodiversity– People and their rights 22

Land use and biodiversity

• There is a strong – and obvious – link between land use and biodiversity.– Biodiversity is hard to measure– Land footprint is a more easily measured proxy

• As land is moved into agriculture – for food, textiles, fuels – biodiversity suffers– E.g. Deforestation in Paraguay

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Deforestation in Paraguay

1945

AsunciónAsunciónCnel. Oviedo

Concepción

P. J. Caballero

S. del Guaira

C. del Este

Encarnación

AsunciónCnel. Oviedo

Concepción

P. J. Caballero

S. del Guaira

C. del Este

Encarnación

Deforestation in Paraguay

1965-1968

AsunciónCnel. Oviedo

Concepción

P. J. Caballero

S. del Guaira

C. del Este

Encarnación

Deforestation in Paraguay

1975-1976

AsunciónCnel. Oviedo

Concepción

P. J. Caballero

S. del Guaira

C. del Este

Encarnación

Deforestation in Paraguay

1984-1985

AsunciónCnel. Oviedo

Concepción

P. J. Caballero

S. del Guaira

C. del Este

Encarnación

Deforestation in Paraguay

1991

AsunciónCnel. Oviedo

Concepción

P. J. Caballero

S. del Guaira

C. del Este

Encarnación

2002Deforestation in Paraguay

2002

Deforestation for Soy continues.....

Impacts on people and their rights

• Land is crucial to people...– Stating the obvious

• The demand for land is taking away people’s land – frequently without their consent.– E.g. the growing issue of Land Grabbing

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Land grabbing

• “Land grabbing is not a new phenomenon. For centuries, communities have been intimidated to abandon – or have been forcibly removed from – their land.

• However we are now witnessing a new aggressive land grab, drivenby high food prices and growing global consumption, with multinational corporations, often in partnership with governments, seizing the land.

• As a consequence, peasants, herders, fishers and rural households are being dispossessed of the means to feed themselves and theircommunities, local populations are being evicted and displaced, human rights are being violated, and the environment, as well astraditional community structures, is being destroyed.”

• “Land, life and justice How land grabbing in Uganda is affecting the environment, livelihoods and food sovereignty of communities”, Friends of the Earth International, April 2012http://www.foei.org/en/resources/publications/pdfs/2012/land-life-justice 32

What next – reducing Europe’s land Footprint?

• The facts:– Population is increasing– Consumption levels are increasing in some very big

countries– Biodiversity is under threat– Climate change will have major impacts on land, as will

water scarcity

• What direction for Europe’s future land footprint:– Up?– The same?– Down?.

How can we reduce our land footprint?

• Two main routes for reduction:– Improved efficiency, e.g.

• Avoiding food waste and other wastes in supply chains• Maximizing reuse & recycling, to remove e.g. textiles from

residual waste

– Changes in consumption patterns• Consumption of less meat, e.g. low meat meals

• Big forces are going in the other direction, in particular the shift from fossil to bio – biofuels, biomass, bio-feedstocks– Either encouraged by policy (e.g. biofuel targets) or by

markets (high oil prices).

Intensification and best practice?

• Some might interpret a programme to reduce Europe’s land footprint as a push towards intensification.– No - it’s about initiating a debate about truly sustainable land use

• Levels – how much land should the EU use?• What is efficient land use? What is best practice?

– Yields – but over the long term– Protection of biodiversity– Avoiding harm from pesticides and pollution

• Social sustainability– Jobs, rights, communities, livelihoods, equity – Land is a human rights issue

• Acknowledged in FAO voluntary guidelines, being approved today 35

Economic benefits of reducing Europe’s land

footprint• Land is money

– The growing pressure on land is showing up in higher land prices, and higher prices of products from land

• E.g. Food price rises are an important part of inflation in some(most?) countries

– The more we can manage down our land import, the less money we need to export to get resources

• Importing resources costs money (obviously!)

• Excessive land consumption is risky– People around the world are protesting against land grabbing– Climate and water stresses are likely to reduce available land– Land (& water) are becoming conflict flashpoints

Conclusions

• Land footprint is an effective tool for monitoring, analysis and setting targets

• We need to discuss and agree targets for future direction of Europe’s resource use– Land footprint is the perfect starting point

• The footprints need to be integrated into policymaking– Through impact assessment of all relevant new polices – e.g.

renewable energy, bio-based economy

• Footprint analysis & reduction needs to be integrated into polices– A toolkit for company footprints, Integration into product policy– Integration into agricultural, energy & food policy

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References

1. Friends of the Earth Europe. (2010). Measuring our resource use: A vital tool in creating a resource-efficient EU.http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/measuring_resource_use.pdf

2. Chapagain, A., & Orr, S. (2008). UK Water Footprint: the impact of the UK’s food and fibre consumption on global water resources. http://www.wwf.org.uk/filelibrary/pdf/uk_waterfootprint_v1.pdf

3. “Europe’s global land demand”, Sustainable Europe Research Institute, 2011http://www.foeeurope.org/publications/2011/Europe_Global_Land_Demand_Oct11.pdfBriefing: http://www.foeeurope.org/publications/2011/Briefing_Europe_Global_Land_Demand_Oct11.pdf

4. “Bioplastics in the context of competing demands for agricultural land in 2050”, J.A. Colwill, E.I. Wright, S. Rahimifard and A.J. Clegg, Int. J. Sustainable Engineering (2011).