Janez Potočnik, Chair of the International Resource Panel
Izabella Teixeira, Co-chair of the International Resource Panel
Panel Members, Observers and colleagues
We have been living through the pandemic and its awful consequences for many months. Unfortunately, we still face a hard road ahead. We are seeing second waves hit many countries, with the prospect of more deaths, more illnesses and more economic difficulties. These waves are hitting countries the hardest, where the basic science of social distancing and mask-wearing have been ignored.
These continuing impacts demonstrate what can happen when policymakers, businesses and citizens do not act in line with science. Similarly, for decades now, scientists like yourselves have been laying out how humanity is driving the three planetary crises: the climate crisis, the biodiversity and nature crisis, and the pollution and waste crisis.
The International Resource Panel (IRP) knows the root cause of these crises, which are destroying the earth systems upon which our economies are built and opening us up to greater risk from zoonotic diseases such as COVID-19.
For 13 years, your research has told us that our relentless extraction, use and discarding of resources is devastating the natural world, propelling climate change and rising pollution levels.
You have told us that greenhouse emissions from the production of materials, as a share of the global total, increased from 15 to 23 per cent between 1995 and 2015.
You have told us that, on current trends, the use of natural resources will double by 2050 – including the need for a 60 per cent increase in food production to feed growing populations.
You have told us that growing use of natural resources is skewed and unequal, with material footprints in high-income countries more than 13 times higher than in low-income countries.
Despite your warnings – and the many solutions you have presented – we have altered 75 per cent of the terrestrial surface of the planet. We have put the existence of one million species in doubt. We have intensified storms, droughts, wildfires, floods and many other climate impacts.
This is not to say that your work has been in vain. IRP findings, especially from the Global Resources Outlook, are informing policy processes. For example, The European Green Deal’s circular economy plan referenced your research on material efficiency strategies for a low-carbon future.
But now we must all stretch our ambitions and actions, using pandemic stimulus packages to launch the systemic changes that will line our economies up with the 2030 Agenda, the Paris Agreement, the post-2020 biodiversity and chemicals agendas, to name but a few.
The scale of the opportunity is unprecedented. Over the next 6 to 18 months, many governments are expected to inject approximately USD 20 trillion into pandemic recovery, on top of taxpayers money already spent protecting people and jobs.
Nature, climate action, and sustainable resource management should be prioritized in the next recovery phase to help usher in a new era of social and economic prosperity for all. An era in which we use resources within the planet’s sustainable capacities. So, looking ahead, the IRP is ever more central and relevant.
So, as you shape your strategic plan, please allow me to share some thoughts on the areas where I think the world needs your expertise. And please allow me to challenge you to find new, innovative and specific ways to get your messages out into the world.
Help emitting sectors adopt zero/low-emissions targets.
Emissions will fall this year, but a recent report from the International Energy Agency made it crystal clear that they will simply rebound after the pandemic unless we start making systemic changes. We cannot afford to let this happen. The World Meteorological Organization recently warned that atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations are at record levels and rising, while the world is set to see its warmest five years on record.
Previous IRP research has shown that the right resource efficiency and sustainable consumption and production policies can cut global greenhouse gas emissions by 90 per cent, compared to historical trends. That we can slow growth in resource use by 25 per cent while growing global GDP by 8 per cent.
We need your science to help us better understand the links between resource use and climate impacts, and provide clear and actionable solutions, with measurable targets, that form the backbone of stronger Nationally Determined Contributions.
Lead the way on clean and circular practices in buildings, agriculture, energy, mobility.
Targets mean nothing if they are not implemented, so the IRP has a role to play in guiding the world as they roll their sleeves up and get to work.
For example, your research on Redefining Value – The Manufacturing Revolution[1] – highlights how value-retention processes create less waste, generate green jobs, lower production costs and avoid resource constraints on business growth. The 14 policy recommendations in that report, including on regulatory barriers, standards, and educational and skills-building campaigns, are but a few examples of concrete, science-guided actions that we need. I am pleased that the IRP is considering follow-up research on this work.
You have made many more recommendations, on resource-smart food systems, resource-efficient cities, and the extraction of metals and minerals. On this last point, your work on channeling extractive rents into public investments is an excellent way to begin diverting funds to the right places. I understand that this meeting will hear proposals on how to specifically transform financial incentives and systems in the sector as a promising follow on.
We need more guidance from you on how to improve the provisioning systems that shape our socio-economic structures.
Colleagues,
Resource relevant research is vital, but we also need to amplify its impact by reaching the widest possible audience. With this in mind, I would like to pose four questions for you to consider.
How do we take our research outside the environment and developed world arena?
We need to engage every sector and actor driving unsustainable resource use, from infrastructure to agriculture, to get them moving on the circularity journey. The IRP has already included business perspectives and made products specifically targeting business leaders. But what else can we do?
Just as important is making sure the movement is inclusive. IRP solutions must be relevant to different country groupings, and to minorities within countries, and provide guidance for their unique circumstances. In this respect, the forthcoming research on the distributional impacts of resource efficiency and circular economy policies is a good starting point. Again, though, what other opportunities do you see?
How do we build a global movement on sustainable consumption and production?
We need a global movement, built on different world views and as mentioned above, on different ecologies of knowledge. Scientific and societal actors should jointly define problems and co-produce knowledge and solutions to address resource equity and sustainability. I am pleased to see that the IRP has joined forces with the One Planet Network to make sustainable consumption and production more actionable and will present a report at the fifth UN Environment Assembly-5 showing how to do this in construction, agri-food and textiles. But I challenge you today to pose the questions beyond efficiency and look at broader impacts of resources. And in so doing, to include new voices, scientists and new ways of cooperating.
And as the world has woken up to racism, sexism and privilege, through the Black Lives Matter movement and the #MeToo, it is important that the science of today understands and is explicit about the bias that it invariably carries with it, be it unconscious or overt.
So let me be direct on this point. This is not some sort of over-correction for political correctness. Rather, in the spirit of being able to ask the right questions, based on different epistemologies, in the spirit of being able to tackle and understand challenges as experienced outside the wealthier nations, and pose and answer truly global questions, it is imperative that the IRP-composition be widened beyond its current dominance of one grouping and experience (the Group which in UN-speak is referred to as WEORG, - a grouping that encompasses Western Europe, New Zealand, Australia and North America ) so that it truly represents global voices and global experiences.
How can the IRP lead discussions at the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) in 2021?
In 2021, the UN’s HLPF will draw a laser focus on SDG 12, on sustainable consumption and production. This is a major opportunity for the IRP to drive global conversation to step up real and meaningful progress on this SDG, which is the bedrock of a sustainable future. How do we use this moment to increase uptake of IRP’s solutions?
How do we use digital tools to strengthen impact?
We are in the midst of the fastest disruption in human history. According to the World Economic Forum, by 2022, 60 per cent of global GDP will be digitalized. Some 90 per cent of today’s data was produced in the last two years. In terms of digital tools for the environment, we have progressed in monitoring platforms, but more is needed to influence behaviour. The IRP Global Material Flows Database is a good step in this direction to effectively inform decision-making.
But how can we use tools like the World Environment Situation Room? While everyone is speaking of big data and blockchain, most, myself included, do not really understand it. But it is worth our while to ask how we can use blockchain to track goods through the supply chain and alter their impact? Which applications can we use to help consumers adopt sustainable practices?
I look forward to seeing what you come up with in response to these questions.
Colleagues,
UNEP Member States have called for greater emphasis on nexus issues as we deal with the three planetary crises. UNEP’s Medium-Term Strategy (2022-2025) is thus based on connecting the dots between human activity, planetary health and human health. Unsustainable resource use is the red thread connecting these dots.
The new strategy targets tangible and sustainable results for people, for prosperity and for equity. The IRP’s research will be critical to help UNEP, and the world, deliver as we seek to implement the SDGs, the Paris Agreement, and the biodiversity and pollution agendas. The IRP is in a unique position to steer our course, based on rigorous science. We need you to sound the alarm, call for action, and layout a path that we can take, together.
Before I hand over to Janez, I want to express my most sincere thanks to Patrice Christmann for his long-standing service to the IRP and extend a warm welcome to new members.
I wish you every success in your deliberations over the next five days.
Thank you.
Executive Director
