Tag: resource efficiency

The EU has established resource efficiency as one of its seven flagship initiatives for the 2020 agenda, and its roadmap is supported by many programmes and initiatives on the ground. Yet, it is a tiger without teeth, claims the latest report by the Transatlantic Academy, a research institution that aims to create common approaches for the long-term challenges faced by Europe and North America.

Europe faces major obstacles in achieving two of its goals at the upcoming sustainable development conference in Rio de Janeiro, a top EU official admitted yesterday (24 April), but will remain an “ambitious partner”.

Industry players complain that the EU’s overregulated raw materials market makes their prices uncompetitive in the global economy.

After years of delays, hopes are high that 2012 will be the year Europe’s Ecodesign Directive will finally kick into action, saving billions of euros and the environment, says Stéphane Arditi, coordinator for the 'Coolproducts' campaign to promote energy-efficient appliances and other consumer goods.

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.

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.

Denmark’s environment and energy ministers vowed yesterday (19 December) to make sustainability and resource efficiency priorities during the country’s upcoming EU presidency, despite pressure across Europe to prioritise short-term crisis-fighting measures.

The European Commission should consider sectoral approaches to its resource-efficiency roadmap as different waste streams like paper or metal follow different supply pathways, argues Jori Ringman-Beck, from the European Recovered Paper Council (ERPC).

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.

Central Europe's relatively low rates of recycling represent an untapped potential with easy gains, said participants at a Steel Packaging Summit in Košice. EurActiv Slovakia reports.

The European Commission's roadmap for a resource-efficient Europe proposes a decent way forward to transform the Union into a sustainable economy, writes Bas de Leeuw from the World Resources Forum.

The European Commission's roadmap for a resource-efficient Europe does too little to address environmental concerns, argue green campaigners while businesses have criticised it for ignoring the benefits eco-industries bring to the environment.

While the European Commission's flagship initiative on resource efficiency, adopted yesterday (26 January), does not set any national targets, Environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik said these could well be tabled by the end of June.

Fresh environmental statistics ranging from household waste to energy consumption are expected to help the EU define the right mix of policies to decouple economic growth from natural resource use.

Brussels will have to come up with stricter conditions in delivering EU funds and citizens will have to make wide - and sometimes difficult - changes to their lifestyles if the EU is serious about accelerating resource efficiency, experts said yesterday (5 October).