The International Panel for Sustainable Resource Management Janet Salem United Nations Environment Programme Division of Technology, Industry and Economics

The

International Panel for Sustainable Resource Management

Janet SalemUnited Nations Environment ProgrammeDivision of Technology, Industry and [email protected]

[email protected] www.unep.fr/scp/rpanel

Resources...?

volume: Conceptual computer artwork of the total volume of water on Earth (left) and of air in the Earth’s atmosphere (right) shown as spheres (blue and pink). The water sphere measures 1390 kilometers across and has a volume of 1.4 billion cubic kilometers. This includes all the water in the oceans, seas, ice caps, lakes and rivers as well as ground water, and that in the atmosphere. The air sphere measures 1999 kilometers across and weighs 5140 trillion tonnes. As the atmosphere extends from Earth it becomes less dense. Half of the air lies within the first 5 kilometres of the atmosphere. Image by Dr Adam Nieman.

Global policy agenda evolving

Environment in political agenda

Air pollutionWater pollutionOzone DepletionWaste managementClimate ChangeBiodiversity

…

Resources

Moving from:

Local to globalEnd-of-pipe to start-of-pipe

Straight forward to complexIncreasing attention to

social and economic considerations

Tim

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Tim

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Global policy agenda

Commission for Sustainable Development (CSD) 2002: World Summit for Sustainable Development

Resource use contributing to MDGs

Delinking economic growth and environmental degradation through improving efficiency and sustainability in use of resources and production processes and reducing resource degradation, pollution and waste.

2010-11: CSD cycle

Focusing on SCP, Waste, Chemicals, Mining, Transport 2012: Rio+20

Focusing on a ‘New development paradigm’ based on low carbon and resilient economies, Poverty eradication and Sustainable consumption and production.

European Commission Resources Strategy

UNEP Resource Efficiency identified as a priority

Other: G8 Environment Ministers (Kobe Action Plan on Resource Productivity), OECD (Sustainable Materials Management)

Science for policy?

Climate change – IPCC

Biodiversity – Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, now the International Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services

Hazardous substances – Basel Convention

Ozone – Montreal Protocol’s scientific assessments

And many others…

…but no international assessments to support decision making on resources.

Objectives

Terms of Reference:

To 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;

To contribute to a better understanding of how to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation.

In short: To give decision-makers the information they need to respond to resource challenges

Background

Understanding how to decouple environmental impacts and resource use from economic growth…

… while avoiding burden shifting between countries, generations, and trade-offs between impact categories and life cycle stages.

What are we talking about?

Resource use

Economic activity

Environmental impacts

Quality of the environment

Time

Fundamental concepts - DPSIR

Decoupling means breaking the links between (1) economic growth and (2) resource and environmental pressures and impacts and associated impacts

Decoupling responses target the drivers of impacts and resource use, while maintaining economic growth and welfare.

Key issues

Resources are important to many aspects of development: economic growth, poverty reduction, environmental impacts.

We need a better understanding on many issues related to resources: More thought is needed about what this means for

developed, emerging and developing countries. Policy making needs a sophisticated approach that

considers burden-shifting and trade-offs. What are the economic impacts of resource policies? How do trade issues, resource rights and poverty

reduction come into the picture?

How it works

Cross-cutting topics

Sectoral entry points

International network of expertsInternational network of expertsAssessments launched!

Working Groups

How it works

Meet the Panel:

How it works

Meet the Steering Committee:

Government: Canada, China, Chile, EC, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, South Africa, Switzerland, Tanzania and USA, OECD

Civil Society Organisations: ICSU, IUCN, and WBCSD

Observers: UK

Three reports have been released on the more urgent questions of policy makers.

Ten further reports under development.

www.unep.fr/scp/rpanel

The metals challenge

Metals are essential for economic development

Base metals like steel and aluminum, mainly for buildings and infrastructurePrecious and specialty metals, like palladium and indium for modern/clean

technologies

Global demand for metals is increasing

E.g. copper and aluminum have doubled in the past 2 decadesRising demand in emerging economies and developing countriesVery strong demand growth for many precious and specialty ('technology') metals

The increasing global demand for metals causes many problems and challenges

Increasing environmental pressures from extraction and manufacturing of raw materials

Growing dependence on regional or economic concentrations of natural resourcesIncreasing risks of international crisis (e.g. war lord activities in parts of Africa)Social tensions among local populations (land owner issues etc.)

UNEP’s Global Metals Flows Group

Promoting the recycling of metals

and a “circular economy”

Work on a series of six

assessment reports

Report 1: Metal Stocks in Society (published now)

Report 2: Recycling Rates (will be published in 2011.; first results presented today)

Report 3: Environmental Impacts of Metals

Report 4: Geological Metal Stocks

Report 5: Future Demand Scenarios of Metals

Report 6: Critical Metals and Metals Policy Options

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Metal stocks in society

The metals stocks in society are increasing worldwide

In-use stock of copper has grown in the US from 73 to 238 kg per capita (1932-1999)The world average is 50 kg copper per capita (2000)In-use stock of steel in China is 1.5 tons (2004) per capita, but in the USA it is 11-12

tons per capita (2004)If the whole world would copy the industrialized countries the global in-use metal

stocks would be 3 to 9 times present levelsFor many technology metals, like indium and rhodium, more than 80% extracted

from natural resources was in the past 3 decades

There is a substantial shift in metals stocks from below ground to above ground

These “mines above ground” have growing potential for future metals supply

E.g. average lifetime of copper in buildings is 25 to 40 years, but for metals in cell phones and PCs it less than 5 years


The relevance of recycling

Enhanced recycling of metals from in-use stocks is a key solution for SD

The production of metals from secondary raw materials reduces environmental impacts compared to primary metals production

High energy savings and reductions of greenhouse gas emissionsSecondary steel causes 75% less GHG emissions compared to primary steelGHG emissions of secondary aluminum production are about 12 times lower than of

primary aluminum productionRecycling reduces the pressure on biodiversity, water resources etc.

Recycling of metals moderates dependencies on natural resources, which are often concentrated in insecure regions

Recycling ensures sustainable access to potentially scarce metals

Recycling creates new jobs and income all over the world


Recycling rates of metals

Investigation of 62 different metals

The metals are grouped into four categories

9 ferrous metals: iron, manganese, nickel, chromium etc.8 non-ferrous metals: aluminum, copper, lead, zinc, tin, magnesium etc.8 precious metals: gold, silver, platinum, palladium, rhodium etc.37 specialty metals: indium, gallium, lithium, tantalum, rare earth metals, tellurium etc.

The most important metric is the end-of-life recycling rate

A high end-of-life recycling rate for a metal indicates a high efficiency of the related post -consumer recycling system

Only a few metals, like iron and platinum, currently have an end-of-life recycling rate of above 50%


Ferrous metals: steel example


Recycling rates of steel

The most widely-used metal – construction, infrastructure, vehicles, etc.

Current global production counts on 1.3 billion tons steel per year, which causes 2.2 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions (4-5% of total man-made emissions)

Often used in very large pieces (steel beams, auto bodies), which makes recycling more probable

Recycled iron requires only about 25% of the energy needed to produce virgin iron

Estimated 2009 end-of-life recycling rate: >50% (varies among countries and iron-containing products)

An additional substitution of just 100 million tons of primary steel by secondary steel has a GHG reduction potential of about 150 million tons CO2


Non-ferrous metals: copper example

Courtesy of International Copper Association


Recycling rates of copper

Common uses: power distribution, electrical wiring, plumbing

Usually used in pure form and in rather large pieces, which makes recycling more probable (exception: electric and electronic devices)

Increasing demand for infrastructure and innovative technologies , like electric vehicles

Increasing small-scale applications in which copper is embedded in a complex matrix: cell phones, DVD players, electronic toys etc.

Estimated 2009 end-of-life recycling rate: 25-50% (varies among countries and copper-containing products)

Lack of adequate recycling infrastructure for WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) in most parts of the world causes total losses of copper and other

valuable metals like gold, silver, palladium, tin etc.


Precious metals: palladium example


Recycling rates of palladium

Current global mine production about 220 tons/year; high regional concentration

Main applications are automotive catalysts (> 60%) and electronics (> 16%); further applications industrial catalysts, dental, jewellery

Current end-of-life recycling rate 60-70% (global average)

Excellent rates for industrial applications: 80-90%

Moderate rates for automotive applications: 50-55%

Poor rates for electronic applications: 5-10%

Increasing problems due to lack of recycling infrastructure for consumer goods

Less than 10% of post-consumer cell phones are recycled in an appropriate way

The main problems are insufficient collection and pre-treatment schemes in the most countries of the world


Specialty metals: indium example

Courtesy of Umicore Precious Metals Refining

indiumtellurium


Recycling rates of indium

Strategic metal used for LCD glass, lead-free solders, semiconductors/LED, photovoltaic etc.

Strong growth in gross demand is predicted for indium: from ca. 1,200 tons (2010) to ca. 2,600 tons (2020)

Specialty metals like indium are crucial for future sustainable technologies like PV, battery technologies, catalysts, efficient lighting systems etc.

The supply of indium from natural resources is crucial: so-called minor metal, which occurs just as a by-product (mainly zinc ores) in low concentrations

The current end-of -life recycling rate of indium is below 1% like for the most other specialty metals: urgent progress is necessary to enhance their recycling


Critical metals for clean technologies - examples

Tellurium, selenium for high efficiency solar cells

Neodymium and dysprosium for wind turbine magnets

Lanthanum and cobalt for hybrid vehicle batteries

Terbium and indium for advanced metal imaging

Gallium for LED

Platinum for automotive catalysts and fuel cells

These and other critical metals become essentially unavailable for use in modern technology without enhanced end-of-life recycling rates in the future!


Conclusions

Metal stocks in society are increasing continuously

These “mines above ground” could contribute to decoupling of resource use from economic growth by efficient recycling

UNEP’s work on metals has shown just moderate or even poor end-of-life recycling rates for many metals

Only for a limited number of metals, like iron/steel, palladium and platinum , could rates above 50% be stated

Many metals show rates below 25%, or even below 1% (for many specialty metals)

Serious data gaps on stocks in society and recycling rates have to be closed

Enhanced recycling rates could help to reduce environmental pressures (GHG emissions, water and land consumption, waste, pressure on biodiversity), and it is crucial to secure sustainable supply of critical metals

Improved recycling schemes will give many people new jobs and a living

Thank you for your attention.

For more information: [email protected]

Documents

The International Panel for Sustainable Resource Management Janet Salem United Nations Environment Programme Division of Technology, Industry and Economics