3 THEMATIC STRATEGY ON THE
SUSTAINABLE USE OF NATURAL RESOURCES
(27141)
5032/06
COM(05) 670
+ ADD 1 & 2
| Commission Communication: Thematic strategy on the sustainable use of
natural resources
Annexes to the Thematic strategy on the sustainable use of natural
resources
|
| Legal base | —
|
| Document originated | 21 December 2005
|
| Deposited in Parliament |
10 January 2006 |
| Department | Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
|
| Basis of consideration |
EM of 23 January 2006 |
| Previous Committee Report |
None, but see footnote 5 |
| To be discussed in Council
| No date set |
| Committee's assessment | Politically important
|
| Committee's decision | Not cleared; further information awaited
|
Background
3.1 The importance of the sustainable use of natural resources
in both economic and environmental terms has long been recognised,
and this is one of the areas in which the Community's Sixth Environmental
Action Programme has called for a thematic strategy. Also, our
predecessors reported to the House in November 2003 on an earlier
Commission Communication[3]
preparing the ground for such a strategy.
The current document
3.2 In the current document, the Commission highlights Europe's
dependence on natural resources[4]
for both the functioning of the economy and the quality of life,
and notes that the way in which these are used, and the rate at
which renewable resources are being exploited, are rapidly eroding
the Earth's regenerative capacity. It adds that, if current patterns
of use are maintained, environmental degradation and depletion
of natural resources will continue, a problem which it says has
not just a European, but a global, dimension. It therefore suggests
that the challenge is to facilitate and stimulate growth, whilst
at the same time ensuring that the state of the environment does
not get worse. It believes that these are not competing aims,
on the grounds that the efficient use of resources contributes
to growth, and that the need is for a long-term strategy which
integrates the environment impacts of using natural resources
into policy making. In particular, it sees the strategy in this
document, which it says should be viewed in the context of its
recently issued Sustainable Development Strategy,[5]
as a response to that challenge, but one which seeks, not to implement
specific initiatives in areas already covered by well established
policies, but rather to set out an analytical framework allowing
the environmental impact of resource use to be routinely factored
into policy making.
3.3 The Commission notes that the major concern in the 1970s was
the scarcity of natural resources, and that, although fears on
that score have not been realised, damage to the natural resource
base remains an issue. In particular, although there have been
improvements in areas such as air and water quality or the increased
recycling of waste, giving rise to a significantly greater material
efficiency, many of these environmental gains have been outpaced
by increases in production. It therefore concludes that current
policies have not been sufficient to reverse fundamentally unsustainable
trends either in Europe or globally, and that there is a need
to move beyond issues such as emissions and waste control, and
to identify the negative environmental impacts of resource use
throughout life cycles, involving the need for an understanding
of impacts along a causal chain so as to enable policy measures
to be targeted.
3.4 On that basis, the Commission says that the overall objective
of the strategy must be to reduce the negative environmental impacts
generated by the use of natural resources in a growing economy.
It also suggests that this must involve actions which improve
knowledge and understanding of resource use and its environmental
impact; developing tools to monitor and report progress; fostering
the application of strategic approaches both in economic sectors
and in Member States; and raising awareness of the environmental
impacts of resource use. It sees this as a long-term process with
a 25 year time horizon, and as requiring actions to be taken at
different levels, which would involve making current policies
work better and developing a series of new initiatives.
3.5 As regards current policies, the Commission points to an increasing
emphasis on integrated approaches and to developing cross-cutting
environmental themes, such as climate change and biodiversity,
which pay greater attention to sustainable resource use —
an approach which it suggests is reflected in its Thematic Strategy
on the prevention and recycling of waste.[6]
It also draws attention to the role of non-legislative approaches,
such as Integrated Product Policy and the Environmental Technology
Action Programme, and to the application of life-cycle thinking
in fields such as transport and energy, as well as in the recent
reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy and Common Fisheries
Policy. It says that it intends to develop initiatives for specific
economic sectors within the context of the Strategy for Growth
and Jobs, and its recent Communication on industrial policy,[7]
and that its integrated impact assessment for major policy proposals
are an important means of applying life-cycle thinking.
3.6 These steps would be accompanied by a number of new initiatives
for all levels of governance in the following areas.
Building the knowledge base
3.7 The Commission says that there is often a lack of information
about complex causal relationships, and that, where data does
exist, exchanges between the holders is not always optimal. It
therefore concludes that there is a need for a Data Centre, to
bring together all available relevant information, to monitor
and analyse it, and to provide information which is relevant to
policy-makers (and which could also be used to develop suitable
indicators for measuring the strategy's progress). With this in
mind, it says that the Community's Seventh Research Framework
Programme will put greater emphasis on developing tools for assessing
environmental, economic and social impacts.
Developing indicators
3.8 Given the importance of measuring progress and providing information
to policy-makers and the public, the Commission says that it will
by 2008 develop indicators to measure progress in efficiency and
productivity in the use of natural resources (including energy),
resource-specific indicators to evaluate how negative environmental
impacts have been decoupled from resource use, and an overall
indicator to measure progress in reducing the ecological stress
of the Community's resource use. It adds that such indicators
should ideally be as aggregated as possible, easily understandable
and built on existing work, and that they should also help to
identify the uses of natural resources which contribute most to
negative environmental impacts.
Action by Member States
3.9 The Commission acknowledges that, apart from agriculture and
fisheries, most natural resource policies do not fall within exclusive
Community competence, and that Member States have policy instruments
at their disposal which are difficult to deploy at Community level.
It therefore proposes that each Member State should develop national
measures and programmes on the sustainable use of natural resources
needed to achieve the strategy's objectives, focussing on those
with the most significant environmental impacts, and including
also mechanisms to develop targets and monitor progress. In order
to facilitate this process, it proposes to set up a High-Level
Forum, comprising representatives of Member States, of the Commission
itself, as well as consumer organisations, environmental NGOs,
industry, academia, and other interested parties. In parallel,
the Commission says that it will also identify measures taken
by Member States which could usefully be applied on a Community-wide
basis, and that it will invite Member States to identify environmental
problems which they consider could effectively be tackled using
market-based instruments, but where lack of coordinated action
at Community level is seen as an obstacle.
The global dimension
3.10 The Commission notes the increasing attention paid at international
level to resource use, and it suggests that an International Panel
should be set up to bring together and sustain this. It envisages
that such a Panel would provide independent advice to the Commission
on the environmental impact of natural resource use in a global
context, contribute towards building the knowledge base, develop
sustainability bench-marks for products coming from outside the
Community, advise developing countries on how to develop their
capacity to assess the environmental impacts of their natural
resource use, and advise on the environmental impacts of the use
of natural resources in the wider global context, for example
as part of the initiatives led by the United Nations Environmental
Programme (UNEP) on sustainable production and consumption.
The Government's view
3.11 In his Explanatory Memorandum of 23 January 2006, the Minister
of State (Environment and Agri-Environment) at the Department
for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Mr Elliot Morley) says
that the Strategy is broadly in line with UK policies on sustainable
production and consumption and natural resource protection. He
adds that a Regulatory Impact Assessment is being prepared, and
will be submitted by the end of March.
Conclusion
3.12 Although this Strategy is necessarily couched in fairly
general terms, it nevertheless deals with an important element
in the Community's overall Sustainable Development Strategy, as
well as linking in with other proposals, such as those dealing
with the prevention and recycling of waste. We are therefore drawing
it to the attention of the House, but think it right to reserve
judgement until we have seen the Regulatory Impact Assessment
which the Government has undertaken to provide.
3
(24933) 13239/03; see HC 63-xxxvi (2002-03), para 10 (5 November
2003). Back
4
This term includes raw materials; environmental media (such as
air water and soil); flow resources (such as wind, geothermal,
tidal and solar energy); and land. Back
5
(27116) 15796/05; see HC 34-xvii (2005-06), para 1 (1 February
2006). Back
6
(27143) 5047/06; see para 7. Back
7
(26913) 13143/05; see HC 34-ix (2005-06), para 9 (9 November 2005)
and HC 34-xvii (2005-06), para 9 (1 February 2006). Back
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