Tag: Raw materials

The European Parliament's environment committee backed a proposed resource efficiency roadmap for Europe on 25 April, marking an important step in EU policymakers' efforts to decouple natural resource use from economic growth. However, in an effort to find a compromise, they left aside proposed ambitious deadlines and measures.

China lost an appeal at the World Trade Organisation on Monday (30 January) in a case about its export restrictions of raw materials. The WTO's final ruling in the case was welcomed by the EU's trade chief and business leaders in Europe.

Recycling less than 1% of high tech metals, Europe has no moral justification to blame the Chinese for restricting their exports of rare earths, Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker from the United Nations Environment Programme argued in an interview with EurActiv.com.

The European Union should establish specific decision-making mechanisms to deal with raw materials issues and coordinate action between member states, the European Parliament said yesterday (13 September).

China yesterday (24 August) vowed to appeal a recent World Trade Organisation ruling against its raw materials export policy, a case that could threaten Beijing's handling of rare earths.

Vast deposits of rare earth minerals, crucial in making high-tech electronics products, have been found on the floor of the Pacific Ocean and can be readily extracted, Japanese scientists said yesterday (4 July).

Recycling has become a central part of the EU's climate change strategy by helping the bloc to tackle the nearly three billion tonnes of waste produced by Europe annually, much of which enters the atmosphere in the form of CO2 and methane emissions from landfill sites and incineration plants.

The huge natural resources contained in the Barents region could be play a key role in helping to meet Europe's growing demand for raw materials, stakeholders stress, calling for increased cooperation between the EU and the region.

To combat illegal exploitation of conflict minerals in Africa, the European Commission is expected to table by November a proposal for an EU law asking large companies to reveal their oil and mining activities to shareholders.

Speculation on commodity markets and excessive concentration in the mining industry is hampering companies' access to resources at competitive prices, in turn affecting economic growth and prompting EU policymakers into action.

While Europe tries to ensure undistorted access to raw materials for its industries, commercial conflicts over export restrictions are a growing area of tension in international trade, with developing countries defending their right to curtail global access to their resources in support of domestic economic development.

The risk of a raw materials supply shortage should be seen as an opportunity to boost research into substitution and recycling technologies to reduce Europe's import dependency. EurActiv spoke with leading businesses and NGOs on how to create a competitive recycling market.

A special group was set in the European Parliament up last month to collect first hand information on the issues affecting raw material prices and availability. The group's chair, German MEP Karl-Heinz Florenz (European People's Party), told EurActiv about his objectives.

French hopes for tough curbs on commodities speculation to tame soaring food prices look set to be thwarted as leading producer nations line up to oppose market interference.

In a last ditch effort, France has managed to beef up an EU proposal on commodities and raw materials which tries to make a link between speculation in financial markets and volatile commodity markets, EurActiv has learned. 

The European Commission is preparing plans that would see European firms build infrastructure in metal-rich African nations in exchange for access to key raw materials there, marking the EU's latest effort to counter China's dominance on the continent.

Green public procurement, eco-labelling and producer responsibility were listed among possible policy options to reduce raw materials consumption in the manufacturing sector, amid growing pressure to decouple economic growth from rising natural resource use.

China's measures to control rare earth exports are geared to "sustainable" exploitation of the minerals, Premier Wen Jiabao said in Europe, while pledging not to impose a complete ban on exports.

Had it not been all too easy in the past to rely on China for supplying Europe's high-tech industries with rare earths, we would not have fallen asleep at the wheel, writes Reinhard Bütikofer, a Green MEP, in an exlusive commentary for EurActiv.

The Belgian EU Presidency wants to clean up industrial processes in Europe by promoting a "cradle-to-cradle" approach to resource management in the manufacturing sector, EurActiv has learned.

Beijing's plan to ban exports of key raw materials called 'rare earths' as of 2015 should cause concern among manufacturers of high-tech products ranging from computers to electric car batteries and wind turbines, experts warned.

European Union regulators opened an antitrust investigation on Monday (25 January) into a planned iron ore production joint venture between BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto worth $116 billion.

An expert group set up by the European Commission has begun screening a list of thirty-nine "potentially critical" raw materials whose availability to industry could come under threat as global competition for natural resources intensifies, EurActiv has learned.

Germany faces a commodity supply gap partly because trade distortions promoted exports of raw materials from Europe such as scrap metal, the association of German industry BDI said yesterday (26 August).