SERI - Growth in Transition: public discussion platform online!

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/4274201

Growth and Resource Use
Wachstum und Ressourcenverbrauch

Nina Eisenmenger - University of Klagenfurt, IFF - Social Ecology Vienna, Austria
Leida Rijnhout - The Northern Alliance for Sustainability (ANPED), Belgium
Bruce Robinson - Australian Association for the Study of Peak Oil, Australia
Chair: Martina Schuster - Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment & Water Management, Austria
Rapporteur: Stefan Giljum - Sustainable Europe Research Institute (SERI), Austria

Growth and resource use

The increased consumption of resources in the industrialised states and in the newly industrialised countries leads the earth to the verge of an ecological disaster. The challenge is to decouple economic activities from resource consumption in order to create an equitably distributed wealth for the people, to protect ecosystems and to reach the climate protection goals.

•How can quality of life and affluence also be reached with considerably lower use of energy and resources?

•How can be prevented that the efficiency gains lead to even more consumption?

•Is beyond the relative decoupling an absolute decoupling of production growth and resource consumption possible and realistic before the background of the global population development?

•Which natural availability limits must be considered for the utilisation of resources and included in the planning for economic processes?

•How is the international race (also of emerging economies) for resources regulated? Do we need specific international resource utilisation agreements?

•How can we succeed in transferring raw materials such as natural and mineral resources into intelligent cycles? Is, for that purpose, a reinvention of our industrial material flows required?

•Which economic opportunities and employment potentials result from a more intelligent and more sustainable way of dealing with resources?