10 Sustainable use of natural resources
| (24933)
13239/03
COM(03) 572
| Commission Communication: "Towards a thematic strategy on the sustainable use of natural resources".
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| Legal base | — |
| Document originated | 1 October 2003
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| Deposited in Parliament | 8 October 2003
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| Department | Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
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| Basis of consideration | EM of 20 October 2003
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| Previous Committee Report | None, but see footnotes
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| To be discussed in Council | No date set
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| Committee's assessment | Politically important
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| Committee's decision | Cleared
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Background
10.1 According to the Commission, sustainable development is one
of the Community's core policy objectives, and the sustainable
use of natural resources is one of the areas which the Sixth Environmental
Action Programme envisaged being addressed through a thematic
strategy. It says that the over-arching goal should be to reduce
the negative impact of resource use on the environment, and it
has therefore attempted in this Communication — as a first
contribution towards the development of such a strategy —
to analyse the environmental issues associated with the use of
natural resources, and to outline what the main features of a
strategy might be, building on existing policies, and identifying
the resource usage with the greatest potential for environmental
improvement.
The current document
10.2 The Communication notes that using natural resources in a
sustainable way means both ensuring the availability of supplies
and managing the environmental impact arising from their use,
and that these require different policy responses. It states
that the Community has already tackled a number of issues, focussing
on "point sources" of environmental impact in the very
early and very late phases of resource use[26],
but that attention has recently turned to diffuse sources of pollution
arising from product use. It says that, in order to develop a
more co-ordinated approach, the Community has, in addition to
a strategy on sustainable use, launched two other closely inter-related
initiatives of the kind envisaged in the Sixth Environmental Action
Programme —
a strategy on the prevention and recycling of waste[27],
and an integrated product policy[28]
to address the overall environmental impact of products.
10.3 Against this background, the Commission first
discusses the current situation as regards resource use and management.
It says that, although concerns have been expressed that the resources
needed to sustain future economic growth will not be available,
the world's reserves of non-renewable resources, such as fossil
fuels and minerals, are very large and keep growing, due to the
discovery of new reserves, greater efficiency in the extraction
and use of existing reserves, and recycling. In other words, the
fact that a resource is finite does not imply that it will become
scarce, though it also recognises that reserves within the Community
itself are limited. On the other hand, the Commission says that
there is a growing consensus that a number of renewable resources,
notably fisheries and fresh water, are becoming scarce, in as
much as current consumption outstrips their capacity to regenerate,
and that resource availability in certain areas, such as energy
supply, can be affected by geopolitical factors, which any European
strategy needs to take into account. However, the Communication
also points out that trends in resource use are constantly changing,
as a result of such factors as technological innovation, or fiscal,
social and trade policies, and that particular attention currently
needs to be paid to areas such as energy consumption and land
use.
10.4 In examining existing policies in this area,
the Commission says that it is not aware of any comprehensive
Community or national policies which address the environmental
aspects of resource use, and that the envisaged strategy would
therefore break new ground. In particular, its aim should be
to identify and assess the impacts of resource use on air, water
and soil, as well as on biodiversity and human health; address
scarcity where relevant; and review policies which influence resource
use and its associated environmental impacts. Its core elements
should thus comprise knowledge gathering, policy assessment, and
policy integration. The Communication also points out that the
Sixth Environmental Action Programme envisaged that the Resources
Strategy should include five elements, namely:
- compiling an estimate of materials
and waste streams in the Community, including imports and exports,
for example by using material flow analysis;
- reviewing the efficiency of policy measures and
the impact of subsidies relating to natural resources and waste;
- establishing goals and targets for resource efficiency
and the diminished use of resources, de-coupling the link between
economic growth and negative environmental impacts;
- promoting extraction and production methods and
techniques to encourage eco-efficiency and the sustainable use
of raw materials, energy, water and other resources; and
- developing and implementing a broad range of
instruments, including research, technology transfer, market-based
and economic instruments, programmes of best practice and indicators
of resource efficiency.
The Government's view
10.5 In his Explanatory Memorandum of 20 October
2003, the Minister for Environment and Agri-Environment at the
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Mr Elliot
Morley) says that the Government broadly welcomes the publication
of this Communication, and is able to support much of its analysis
and conclusions, which are broadly in line with the approach in
Changing Patterns, the UK Government Framework for Sustainable
Consumption and Production, published on 25 September. He
says that the Government will contribute actively to further development
of this work, to help encourage a package of well-considered and
designed policy proposals which can attract widespread support
and stimulate effective action.
Conclusion
10.6 Even by the often lamentable standards set
by Communications of this sort, the current document is discursive
and lacks any real focus, making it difficult to discern with
any clarity or precision what it is seeking to convey. In view
of this, and the fact that it will be followed in due course by
the promised thematic study, we see no need for it to be considered
further, and we are therefore clearing it. However, since it is
intended to be considered alongside two similar documents (on
waste recycling and integrated product policy) which we have already
drawn to the attention of the House, we think it right to do so
in this case too.
26 Covering on the one hand extraction and harvesting,
and, on the other, emissions and waste. Back
27
(24611) 10113/03; see HC 63-xxxiv (2002-03), paragraph 10 (22
October 2003). Back
28
(24669) 10801/03; see HC 63-xxxii (2002-03), paragraph 22 (17
September 2003). Back
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