Objective of this study is to support the development of a Thematic Strategy for Sustainable Use and Management of Resources through the provision of background information, in particular "an estimate of materials and waste streams in the Community, including imports and exports" (Article 8 a 6th EAP) using the method of material flow accounting. It further presents first ideas on how the resource use pattern of the EU can be assessed with regards to priority setting for possible policy measures.
By referring to the concept of Industrial Metabolism, resources are defined in a broad sense, embracing the source and sink function of the natural environment, i.e. the provision of raw materials and land, and the absorption of residual materials (waste and emissions). Environmental impacts are associated not only with the extraction, harvesting and catching of raw materials but also with the subsequent production, use and disposal of products and goods. It is the total of environmental impacts associated with the entire life cycle of raw materials which has to be considered.
Three generic "management rules" for the sustainable use and management of renewable and non-renewable natural resources are presented and discussed which have been formulated by several political institutions based on scientific literature:
1. The use of renewable resources should not exceed their renewal and/or regeneration rates.
2. The use of non-renewable resources should not exceed the rate at which substitutes are developed (should be limited to levels at which they can either be replaced by physically or functionally equivalent renewable resources or at which consumption can be offset by increasing the productivity of renewable or non-renewable resources).
3. Outputs of substances to the environment (pollution) should not exceed the assimilative capacity of environmental media ("absorption capacities").
Diese Studie untersucht den Zusammenhang zwischen Globalisierung, also der Zunahme der weltweiten Handelsverflechtungen, und ausgewählten ökologischen Implikationen unter besonderer Berücksichtigung von "Nord-Süd-Konstellationen". Obgleich der weltweite Handel sich Mitte der 90er Jahre deutlich vom Weltwirtschaftswachstum abgehoben hat und seitdem nahezu dreimal schneller ansteigt als das Weltsozialprodukt, steigen ausgewählte weltweite Umweltbelastungsindikatoren in Form von Energieverbrauch und CO2-Emissionen nicht in dem Maße an wie der Welthandel. Globalisierung führt offenbar nicht zu einem im gleichen Ausmaß ansteigenden globalen Umweltverbrauch. Im Rahmen einer derartigen Entkoppelung kann es jedoch hypothetisch zu Verlagerungen kommen. Derartige Verlagerungseffekte werden im vorliegenden Papier exemplarisch am Beispiel der globalen Stoffstromverflechtungen der Europäischen Union untersucht. Es zeigt sich, dass im Verlauf der Globalisierung die EU-Länder vermehrt Umweltbelastungen in die Länder des Südens verlagert haben, vor allem in Form von ökologischen Rucksäcken der Rohstoffimporte. Gleichzeitig wurde der Druck auf die inländische Umwelt in Form von Ressourcenabbauprozessen reduziert. Des Weiteren wurden vermehrt "umweltbelastungsintensive" Waren aus Schwellenländern und Entwicklungsländern importiert. Diese zeichnen sich durch emissionsseitige Umweltbelastungen in den jeweiligen Schwellenländern und Entwicklungsländern aus (industrielle Luft- und Wasseremissionen, Schwermetallemissionen). Dabei diente das verstärkt aus ausländischen Ressourcen gedeckte Materialaufkommen in der EU weniger dem inländischen Konsum; es wurde vor allem zur Herstellung von Gütern für den Export verwendet, und zeigt somit einen zunehmenden Beitrag der EU zum Ressourcenaufwand anderer Ökonomien an. Das Papier leitet ab, dass bei einer Strategie der Ressourcen-Produktivitätssteigerung in Industrieländern, die internationale Dimension unbedingt zu berücksichtigen ist. Längerfristig sollte der Ressourcenverbrauch der EU auch in absoluten Mengen vermindert werden. Dies wäre auch erforderlich, um die Umweltbelastungen durch Importe und Exporte zu vermindern.
This paper examines the connection between globalisation, with its growth in world trade links, and certain ecological effects especially concerning "North-South" relations. Although world trade in the mid-nineties was significantly uncoupled from growth trends in the world economy, so that since then it has increased nearly three times faster than the global GDP, certain indicators of energy use and CO2 emissions have not developed proportionately to world trade; globalisation evidently does not lead to a situation where pressures on the environment are increasing to the same extent worldwide. This de-linking may, however, result in the kind of shifts that we examine here with reference to the material trade flows of the European Union. It will be shown that, in the course of globalisation, the countries of the EU have increasingly shifted environmental burdens on to the countries of the South, especially in the form of ecological rucksacks of imported raw materials, while at the same time reducing the pressure on their own domestic environment by extracting fewer material resources. Furthermore, goods whose production places intensive pressure on the environment (industrial emissions into the atmosphere and water, heavy metal emissions, etc.) have been increasingly imported from newly industrializing or developing countries. The greater covering of material requirements from foreign resources has served not so much the EU's internal consumption as its own production of export goods; this shows that the EU has an increasing share in the resource requirement of other economies. The paper concludes that it is absolutely necessary to consider the international dimension in any strategy for more productive use of resources in industrial countries. In the long term, the EU's resource use should also be reduced in absolute terms. This will also be necessary in order to reduce the pressure on the environment due to imports and exports.