International Resource Panel
Abbreviation | IRP |
---|---|
Formation | 2007 |
Type | Independent scientific panel |
Key people | Janez Potočnik and Izabella Teixeira (co-chairs) |
Parent organisation | UN Environment |
Website | https://www.resourcepanel.org/ |
The International Resource Panel is a scientific panel of experts that aims to help nations use
- the volume of selected raw material reserves and how efficiently these resources are being used
- the lifecycle-long environmental impacts of products and services created and consumed around the globe
- options to meet human and economic needs with fewer or cleaner resources.
The Secretariat of the IRP is hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) through its office in Paris, France.
Structure of the IRP
The Panel has more than 35 expert members drawn from a wide range of academic institutions and scientific disciplines, supported by a small Secretariat hosted by UNEP. It is co-chaired by Janez Potočnik, former European Commissioner for the Environment, and Izabella Teixeira, former Environment Minister of Brazil. Its Steering Committee is drawn from representatives of governments, the European Commission (EC) and UNEP. It guides the Panel's strategic direction, ensures policy relevance, and oversees budgets.
History of the IRP
While
The 2005
The concept of sustainable use of resources was placed on the global governance agenda in 1992 at the
A need for science
As various authorities began shaping policies to encourage sustainable consumption and production, two issues emerged. One was that the field was lacking the kind of rigorous scientific assessments that underpinned research into other environmental disciplines, such as climate change (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), biodiversity (Convention on Biological Diversity) and Ozone (Montreal Protocol). The other was that as raw materials are sourced, processed, manufactured into products, traded and consumed in locations around the world, any scientific assessments would need to be global in scope. Different regions also tended to treat the topic differently, depending on the volume of resources they used, methods they used to process resources and whether they had access to domestic resources or depended on imports.
The IRP was founded in 2007
The IRP has done a number of assessments, the topics of which include
By providing the best available scientific information on using resources efficiently, the IRP aims to help the world shift to a ‘green economy’, where patterns of consumption and production are sustainable, all citizens have equitable access to resources and the enduring quality of the global commons is assured.
The panel's mission
- 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.
- Contribute to a better understanding of how to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation while enhancing human well-being.
What the IRP does
The IRP investigates the world's most critical resource issues with a view to supporting governments, industry, and society to improve resource efficiency — a necessary condition to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
References
- ^ Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, (2005). Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Synthesis. Island Press, Washington, DC.
- ^ WWF (2006), Living Planet Report.
- ^ Doris A. Fuchs and Sylvia Lorek, Sustainable Consumption Governance: A History of Promises and Failures[permanent dead link]
- ^ OECD OECD's Work on Sustainable Materials & Waste Management
- ^ European Commission, Sustainable Use of Natural Resources
- ^ UNEP Annual Report 2005 Sustainable Living
- ^ "Launching the UNEP International Panel for Sustainable Resource Management".
- ^ UNEP Publications Archived 2016-05-13 at the Portuguese Web Archive
External links
- www.resourcepanel.org
- www.unep.org
- Decoupling natural resource use and environmental impacts from economic growth (2011)
- Recycling rates of metals: A status report (2011)
- Assessing the environmental impacts of consumption and production: Priority products and materials (2010)
- Metal stocks in society: Scientific synthesis (2010)
- Towards sustainable production and use of resources: Assessing biofuels (2009)