Evaluating impacts on resource efficiency
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Contents
Scope
Does the option promote greater resource efficiency?[1]
Description
Resources are the backbone of every economy. In using resources and transforming them, capital stocks are built up which add to the wealth of present and future generations. However, the dimensions of our current resource use are such that the chances of future generations - and the developing countries - to have access to their fair share of scarce resources are endangered. Moreover, the consequences of our resource use in terms of impacts on the environment may induce serious damages that go beyond the carrying capacity of the environment. These effects risk being aggravated once the developing world has taken up growth and resource use similar to the industrialised countries.
Resource efficiency or resource productivity can be defined as the efficiency with which we use energy and materials throughout the economy, i.e. the value added per unit of resource input. This means that resource productivity is defined analogously to labour productivity: the value added per unit of human resource. An example of resource productivity calculation on a national level is dividing the total economic activity of a country (expressed in GDP) by the total energy use (e.g. in toe) or total material-use (tons). The reverse of this quotient, i.e. energy use divided by economic activity, is also used and is called the energy intensity of the economy. If the energy (or material) intensity of the economy decreases, dematerialization is said to occur. The given definition of resource efficiency deals solely with the use to which resources are put. This implies that it does not consider the way resources are extracted or harvested (upstream of the economic activity) nor how they are disposed to air, water and soil (downstream of the economic activity). In order to fully understand the environmental implications of resource use, it is necessary to include both upstream and downstream activities (including the use of infrastructure, transport, dispersive losses, etc.).[1]
Result
Further information
EC related information:
Thematic strategy on the sustainable use of resources
Other information:
Indicators
The following Eurostat Sustainable Development Indicators (Climate change and energy, Global partnership) are relevant to address the key question:
- Energy intensity of the economy
- Final energy consumption, by sector
- Combined heat and power generation
- Final energy consumption by sector
- EU imports of material from developing countries, by group of products
- CO2 emissions per capita in EU and in developing countries[1]
There are no Eurostat Structural Indicators directly related to this key question.
Relevant data is also available in the OECD statistics database under the headings:
See also
References
This text is for information only and is not designed to interpret or replace any reference documents. The text is partially adapted from:
