IEEP Analysis Briefing: Sustainable Consumption and Production

An Expert Working Group convened under the auspices of the EU’s Raw Materials Initiative has produced a report identifying resources that are critical to the EU. The report includes a methodology and list of 14 critical materials which is strongly influenced by geo-political factors, difficulty in substituting materials and the economic importance of each material. The suggested response to the problem of EU access to raw materials focuses to a great extent on removing barriers to resource availability in third countries, and appears to somewhat neglect environmental impacts, the environmental objectives of other EU strategies, and the promotion of more effective resource management within the EU.

• Sustainable Consumption and Production – Working group defines list of critical raw materials for th PDF 167.4 KB