Metal Stocks in Society – Scientific Synthesis - Unep Dtie

Metal Stocks in Society – Scientific Synthesis
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International Panel
for Sustainable
Resource
Management
As our economies have grown, so has the use
of materials and resources. In an increasingly
globalised economy, the challenge for
policy-makers is to streamline actions for
ensuring a more sustainable management of
resources, both renewable and non-renewable.
There are existing measures such as
policies on climate change and biodiversity
that tackle certain aspects of the global
resource issues. However a holistic approach
to resources management is needed to better
identify their interlinkages and gaps in a systemic
way.
The establishment of UNEP’s International
Panel for Sustainable Resource Management,
or Resource Panel for short, is a
first step towards addressing this need. The
Resource Panel was officially launched in
November 2007 and aims to provide the scientific
impetus for decoupling economic
growth and resource use from environmental
degradation.
The objectives of the Resource Panel are to
provide independent, coherent and authoritative
scientific assessments of policy relevance
on the sustainable use of natural resources
and in particular their environmental impacts
over the full life cycle as well as to contribute
to a better understanding of how to decouple
economic growth from environmental
degradation.
This work builds on and will contribute
to other related international initiatives,
including the development of the 10-year
framework on sustainable consumption
and production (Marrakech Process), the
Green Economy Initiative and the Global
Environment.
Global Metal Flows
Working Group
Economic development is deeply coupled
with the use of metals. The growing demand
for metals implies a permanent pressure
on the resource base. Metals are resources
that have a high value and in principle can be
easily reused and recycled. Reuse and recycling
activities of metals on a global scale can
contribute to closing the loops, turn waste
into resources, and are expected to thereby
reduce environmental impacts, safeguard the
availability of metals, minimize metal prices,
and promote meaningful and safe jobs for
poor people in developing countries.
The Global Metal Flows Working Group aims
at contributing to the promotion of reuse and
recycling of metals and the establishment of
an international sound material-cycle society
by providing scientific and authoritative
assessment studies on the global flows of
metals. Expected results include revealing
potentials for increasing the resource
efficiency of metal flows at the national and
international level.