21 Apr 2022 | Series | S+50

Q&A with the International Resource Panel

To mark five decades of the environmental movement with the Stockholm+50 international meeting, we are celebrating global collaboration on environmental challenges through this Q&A series with representatives of partner organizations. Here, Janez Potočnik, former European Commissioner for the Environment, and Izabella Teixeira, former Environment Minister of Brazil, co-chairs of the International Resource Panel speak about the upcoming Stockholm conference and what its legacy signifies for them.

 

Briefly describe your organisation and its work.

The International Resource Panel (IRP) is a science-policy interface: a panel of scientists from all over the world, guided by a Steering Committee of around 35 country government representatives and the European Commission. Hosted by UNEP since 2007, brought together to consolidate knowledge and produce new insights on the management of natural resources, its impacts, and solutions.

As co-chairs of the IRP, we are honoured to mark the organization’s 15th Anniversary, and follow the excellent work done by our predecessors Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, Ismail Serageldin, Alicia Bárcena Ibarra, and Ashok Khosla.

What would you consider to be your organisation’s greatest achievements for the environmental agenda?

Through its focus on natural resources, IRP is uniquely positioned to help tackle the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, pollution and waste. IRP data shows that natural resource use is a major driver of the triple planetary crisis: with its extraction and processing responsible for over 90 per cent of land-related biodiversity loss, 50 per cent of climate change impacts (via fossil fuel products, biomass, steel, and cement), and one third of air pollution, as well as water and soil pollution. By examining drivers, trends, and origins of our biggest challenges, we can unlock solutions to tackle them.

When IRP began in 2007, its objective was to foster sustainable resource management in order to decouple economic growth and environmental degradation. Since then, it has provided powerful research on many topics including the future of biofuels, metals and minerals, urban form, building natural capital, trade, and much more. Our insights have highlighted how resource management can contribute to tackling the triple planetary crisis: the 2020 report on Resource Efficiency for Climate Change illustrated how changing production and utilization of houses and cars can contribute to reducing emissions. Other work has underlined the relationship between resource use, biodiversity and habitat degradation, and outlined strategies for managing resources to halt and reverse biodiversity loss.

Over the last 15 years, IRP has developed a network of global experts, policymakers, and partner organisations who comprise expertise in diverse disciplines including industrial metabolism, economics, governance, cities, food, and more. Through our Steering Committee of government representatives, IRP insights are directly applicable to policy questions in a range of global contexts. Further, we have forged partnerships with impactful organisations, including the World Economic Forum, World Resources Institute, Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and International Chamber of Commerce, enabling real, two-way engagement with the private sector and civil society.

What does the Stockholm Declaration mean to you? What do you hope comes out of the Stockholm+50?

The messages of the Stockholm Declaration are still pertinent today: emphasizing that natural resources must be “safeguarded for the benefit of present and future generations through careful planning or management,” and highlighting the fundamental relationship between human wellbeing and environmental quality. Unfortunately, we can see that over the 50 years, humanity’s relationship with the environment has deteriorated: we have lost about a fifth of the Amazon rainforest’s total area in the last five decades alone, and species extinction rates are 100-1000 times their natural rate. Meanwhile, extraction of materials for human use and consumption continues to rise, and IRP data shows that if we continue with current trends it will double by 2060; with all the environmental impacts that would entail.

Stockholm +50 is a moment to commemorate and reflect. As a global society, we are facing an urgent challenge, driven by the unsustainable economic system we continue to support. We need to act now to ensure our systems support planetary stability. Therefore, we hope that Stockholm +50 triggers transformative multilateral action from the global community. The three Leadership Dialogues on prosperity for all, sustainable and inclusive recovery from COVID-19, and accelerating action on the environmental dimension of Sustainable Development all provide springboards for development of multilateral solutions.

How do you think the environment will fare in the next 50 years?

The science is clear: unless we take transformative action to address our unsustainable consumption and production practices, our planet will not remain habitable. The messages of IPCC’s new mitigation report powerfully echo this. UNEP’s recent publication Making Peace with Nature is a crucial asset, explaining environmental trends and their drivers in a science-based way. It outlines the gaps towards maintaining and restoring Earth’s natural systems. We can close these gaps and ensure planetary stability, but only if we change our systems, and fast. We hope that Stockholm +50 will catalyse co-ordinated action towards this aim.

What does Stockholm+50 need to deliver to tackle the planet’s environmental challenges?

The connection between powerful scientific insights, and actionable solutions has never been more important. We also know that actionable solutions need target the key drivers of the triple planetary crisis: unsustainable production and consumption. We can no longer steer the economy to produce and consume more, not even if the processes or materials are a bit greener and cleaner. We need to fundamentally redefine the definition of economic success.

Through changing how we think, we can develop solutions to offer people better nutrition, better quality living space in well-designed neighborhoods, and streamlined green mobility systems, all while decreasing use of resources. We must reject the assumption that these benefits need to be resource-intensive. In fact, by designing them to be less resource intensive, we have a great chance to unlock multiple positives: for example, limiting urban sprawl will not only reduce resource requirements of the built environment, but will also minimize the amount of time you need to sit in dense traffic during your morning commute. By maximizing these co-benefits, we have a real opportunity to bring together multiple actors and agendas which may not have previously seen eye to eye.

Stockholm +50 can help spur multilateral solutions to bring about system change. We can leverage the wealth of scientific insights, and give clear, positive solutions to policymakers. We look forward to working together to make quality data for global governance, and actionable recommendations for policymakers a reality for the future. It is critical that we do this, as our window of planetary opportunity is closing fast.

 

The International Resource Panel (IRP) is a global science-policy platform established by the United Nations Environment Programme in 2007 to build and share knowledge needed to improve our use of natural resources. Working with a broad network of scientists and governments, our goal is to steer the world away from overconsumption, waste, and ecological harm to a more prosperous and sustainable future.