Tag: natural resources

Much attention has been paid over recent months to ways of cutting links between natural resources and the fuelling of unlawful armed conflict, particularly in the Democratic Republic of Congo, writes Terry Heymann. But policies to address the issue might also have unintended consequences, he warns.

Greenland's prime minister said on Monday (14 January) he has rejected requests from the European Union to block access to its deposits of rare earths, strategically important metals in which China has a near monopoly.

Faced with water shortages in its sunny south, Spain has become a European trendsetter in harnessing seawater for human use and is an industrial leader in desalination.

Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy, a Dutch Liberal MEP who is drafting a resolution on resource-efficiency for the European Parliament, proposes a ‘Schengen area’ for waste that would allow all sorts of second-hand resources to be traded more freely between member states. He spoke to EurActiv about the priority actions he will try to push for in the coming months and years.

Rising global demand for natural resources will threaten economic health and social cohesion in Europe, the European Environment Agency (EEA) has warned.

With the world's natural resources depleting fast, the European Union and the United Nations are considering imposing limits on the consumption of anything from meat to air travel, plastics and fossil fuels in order to stop waste and pollution.

Resource efficiency is one of the flagship initiatives of the 'Europe 2020' strategy for economic growth. Stakeholders stressed the need to establish coherent and clear indicators to evaluate the bloc's use of resources and progress made towards a more eco-efficient economy.

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.

Over a third of global steel production now comes from recycled scrap material, but recycling rates vary a lot across the globe, according to a report by the WorldWatch Institute.

In a joint effort with the United States, the European Union took action against China yesterday (23 June) for restricting exports of industrial raw materials, as EU companies struggle to access key natural resources at a time of recession.

Natural areas protected under EU law could be opened for mining as part of efforts to curb Europe's growing dependence on third-country imports of precious minerals and metals, the European Commission announced yesterday (4 November).

The current high prices for oil and foodstuffs are indicators of an imminent crisis in the world economic order, which fails to internalise ecological limits and resource scarcity, says Luxembourg Green MEP Claude Turmes.

European nations, which use more than twice the amount of resources available on their territories, need to factor ecological assets into their national accounting systems in order to prevent ecological bankruptcy, says Mathis Wackernagel of the Global Footprint Network. He spoke with EurActiv in an interview.

Natural resources and habitats continue to shrink at an alarming rate while atmospheric CO2 concentrations rise steadily, according to a new report on the Earth's 'vital signs' by the Worldwatch Institute.

MEPs have called on the Commission to set a binding target to halve natural resource-use by 2030 and propose measures within the next three years to decouple the use of land, fossil- fuels and other raw materials from economic growth.

A conference held by German think-tank Ecologic examined the issue of resource efficiency (energy, raw materials) and the opportunities it provides for the economy and job creation.

A new EU Action Plan seeks to clarify responsibilities between the EU and member states on bringing plant and animal extinction to a halt by 2010. But environmentalists say the measures are weak and may just come too late.