So far, the EEB is not impressed by the progress made in the EU with respect to sustainable production and consumption patterns. The general objective is to promote the realisation of absolute decoupling between natural resource use and GDP, to a level that is in line with the earth’s carrying capacity. To do this the setting of targets is key.

What is the EEB doing?
Most environmental problems are caused by overuse, inappropriate use and/or mismanagement of natural resources. EEB works for the development of an analytical and policy framework on the use of resources, as an umbrella to and setting the ambition for the many policies that already exist or are under development.

Natural resources such as minerals and metals, fossil fuels, forests, sea ecosystems, biodiversity, genetic variety, fertile soil, fresh water sources, clean air and open space are the basis on which our societies depend. A sustainable use and management of these resources – inside and outside the EU – implies that their use and management is meeting the needs and concerns of the present generation while ensuring that they are available and have the same quality for future generations.

However, these resources are currently increasingly threatened by deterioration, depletion and pollution, as worldwide economic growth is generally coupled to the growth of the consumption of renewable and non renewable materials, already far beyond the carrying capacity of the environment.

In the mandate for the Strategy on Sustainable Use of Natural Resources, the Sixth Environmental Action Programme identified various priority actions. Key among these was the request for ‘establishment of goals and targets for resource efficiency and the diminished use of resources’. Without such goals and targets in place in the final Strategy in 2005, the crucial backbone of directional guidance (‘the mission’) that must set the framework will be missing.

Within the Action Programme, some non-quantitative targets already exist as concerns resource use and management, namely halting biodiversity decline by 2010, achieving safe quality ground- and surface water levels and sustainable levels of [water] extraction and a significant overall reduction in volumes of waste generated by 2012. But more specific and quantified ones still need to be set.

The EEB is putting forward three elements:

• general factor 4 target for resource use in the EU

This would be a headline political obligation for all producers or users, it would become the reference target for all product, waste, transport and other resource related policies and a core criteria for EU and national government spending on procurement, investment and research (especially towards innovation).

• Specific targets for 20 priority materials

The choice for priority materials, based on streams and impacts, is necessary for a more focused approach. Thus the EEB is proposing to develop and included in the thematic strategy:

-A list of an EU top twenty priority materials for the thematic strategy

-Specific targets and policies for the top twenty, with timetables 2010-2020-2030

Every five years a review of the top twenty will be needed.

• EU programmes for sustainable production and consumption

EU programmes for sustainable production and consumption should be aimed at the factor 4 target, aiming at creating better products and services, serving basic needs of people in all major consumption domains such as housing, food, clothing, transport/access, communication, information/education, health and recreation. This would also meet an important obligation from the WSSD.

This approach should offer innovative businesses additional opportunities as well as serve people who are less well off to enjoy the fulfilling of basic human needs with less or more sustainable use of resources.
 

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	For more information, please contact: Nathalie CLIQUOT email: nathalie.cliquot@eeb.org