The recognition that the world ecosystem is crucial to humanity’s economic activities, particularly its ability to provide resources and absorb pollution and waste, is the key to finding an answer to that question. Importantly, the Earth is a closed material system, and this affects the prospects for economic development.
Of course, some non-renewable resources, such as many metals and minerals, are already in short supply, while others, like land, high-tech metals, and some fossil fuels, are already difficult to come by.
Also considered to be a form of capital are natural systems. If we preserve our natural capital, it will offer incredibly valuable renewable resources and ecosystem functions, like as producing food and textiles, controlling the climate, purifying water, and other things. However, overusing our natural resources, such as by using excessive amounts of resources or generating excessive amounts of pollutants, will limit their capacity to continue producing products and services.
Natural limits
In other words, we can’t keep using the environment’s resources and producing garbage at an exponential rate. The only way to maintain economic growth in the long run is to become more resource efficient, or to find ways to generate greater returns from the same number of resources, once the flow of resources through the economy has reached its maximum sustainable limit (and many would argue that we’ve already passed that point for some resources).
Resource efficiency isn’t only valuable because it is essential for sustained economic growth. Reducing environmental impacts also contributes to well-being derived outside the market economy, notably the quality of life that comes from living in a healthy, attractive environment. Moreover, promoting resource efficiency can increase the competitiveness of industry, create jobs, stimulate innovation, boost sectors such as recycling and resource recovery, and help ensure secure supplies of key resources.
Given these multiple advantages, it is not surprising that resource efficiency has elevated to the top of the policy agenda in Europe. Within its EU2020 vision for smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth, the European Union has specifically named resource efficiency as one of seven flagship objectives.
Measuring and managing resource use
Given the meaning given above to the term “resource efficiency,” it is obvious that those making decisions in order to advance resource efficiency would need to rely on a wide range of information.
Policymakers need indicators of the scope and character of resource inputs and their connection to economic outputs at larger scales of production, such as the national level, as well as smaller scales, such as individual sectors, in order to comprehend resource efficiency. Consumption-focused indicators, which track the resources used in goods and services throughout the course of their entire life cycles, are also helpful, especially when it comes to comprehending and formulating legislation to address resource consumption that is engrained in global commerce.
Once the patterns and factors influencing resource use have been determined, policymakers must decide how to improve resource efficiency. The task is vast, and decision-makers in all fields require knowledge of the laws, instruments, and innovations that can be used in the economy (at the national, regional, and other levels) to maximize resource value and reduce waste and emissions.
