ASIA’S SOARING CONSUMPTION OF RAW MATERIALS UNSUSTAINABLE, UN WARNS

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From: UNNews <UNNews@un.org>
Date: 24 Apr 2013 14:00:01 -0400
Subject: ASIA'S SOARING CONSUMPTION OF RAW MATERIALS UNSUSTAINABLE, UN WARNS
To: news11@ny-mail-p-lb-028.ptc.un.org

ASIA'S SOARING CONSUMPTION OF RAW MATERIALS UNSUSTAINABLE, UN WARNSNew
York, Apr 24 2013 2:00PMThe Asia-Pacific region, which has overtaken
the rest of the world in consumption of raw materials as affluence and
manufacturing increase, must boost its resource efficiency or risk
losing ground in lifestyle, economic growth and environmental
sustainability, according to a UN report released today.

From 1970-2008, consumption of construction minerals increased 13.4
times, metal ores and industrial minerals consumption 8.6, fossil
fuels 5.4, and biomass 2.7 times, according to the report released by
the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), entitled, 'Recent
Trends in Material Flows and Resource Productivity in Asia and the
Pacific.'

The report highlights the region's inefficient use of resources as
measured by material intensity - consumption of materials per dollar
of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) - as an area of serious concern.
Currently, material intensity for Asia-Pacific is three that of times
the rest of the world.

"Each dollar of GDP requires increasing amount of materials," said
Park Young-Woo, Director of the UNEP Regional Office for Asia and the
Pacific.

The report found that the region is moving from biomass to a
minerals-based economy, indicating that the most-populous countries
like China and India are transitioning from agrarian to industrialized
economies, UNEP reported.

According to figures cited, China is responsible for over 60 per cent
of the region's total domestic material consumption, and India for 14
per cent.

The rise in use of metal ores and industrial minerals use in India
indicates that the country is entering a rapid acceleration phase in
its transition to an industrialized economy, the UN agency notes.

Growing affluence and material intensity were the primary drivers of
raw material consumption, and any attempts to regulate the industry
would have to address both, the report stresses.

"The findings of the report conclude that countries in Asia and the
Pacific face even greater challenges to make the transition of current
economic growth patterns towards green growth, and to transform the
economies into truly green economy, despite the strong efforts in
development of policies and strategies by member countries," said Mr.
Park.

The report recommends the establishment a global harmonized database
that shares material use data for all countries as an important step
in helping policymakers and businesses anticipate resource issues, and
to provide academia with reliable data to support decision makers with
the policy relevant science.

In other reports released today, UNEP states that the soaring demand
for metals necessitates more sophisticated recycling practices to
address the challenges of increasingly mixed metal products and their
negative environmental impacts.

"Global metal needs will be three to nine times larger than all the
metals currently used in the world," UNEP Executive Director Achim
Steiner said on the launch of the report entitled, 'Environmental
Risks and Challenges of Anthropogenic Metals Flows and Cycles' during
a high-level dialogue on Resource Efficiency and Sustainable
Management of Metals in Berlin.

"Product designers need to ensure that materials such as rare earth
metals in products ranging from solar panels and wind turbine magnets
to mobile phones can still be recovered easily when they reach the end
of their life," he added.

A mobile phone, for example, can contain more than 40 elements,
including base metals such as copper and tin and precious and
platinum-group metals such as silver, gold and palladium.

Another report launched at the event, entitled, 'Metal Recycling –
Opportunities, Limits, and Infrastructure' outlines improvements that
should be made to metal recycling systems to meet current and future
needs.

That report notes that the potential for recycling is enormous but
that current a huge amount of electrical and electronic equipment
waste is generated during recycling, estimated at 20 to 50 million
tonnes, or three to seven kilograms per person, each year.

Among the recommendations in the report, the authors suggest better
means of separating out elements for recycling and of optimizing
recycling production to avoid inefficiencies throughout the
process.Apr 24 2013 2:00PM
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