Meeting the UK Climate Change Challenge: The Contribution of Resource Efficiency

Written by Robert Watt

Wednesday, 04 November 2009 07:08

Study provides a detailed assessment of the reduction in Greenhouse Gases that could be achieved by implementing a range of resource efficiency strategies in the UK.

Researchers at SEI, at the University of York, calculated the Greenhouse Gas savings from a range of strategies that could be implemented by households, government and industry, all relating to using material more efficiently. It demonstrates that resource efficiency has an important role to play and offers a number of “Quick Win” opportunities to achieve emissions reductions.

The key finding is that improvements in resource efficiency can be taken immediately, as advocated by Lord Stern, and could deliver almost 10% of the reductions required by the Low Carbon Transition Plan. To reach this target, changes in consumption, the way households use goods and services, will be as crucial as changes to methods of production.

For consumption, significant reductions can be made through changing behaviour related to food and drink. Changes in diets and reductions in food waste could have an immediate effect on reducing GHG emissions. Increasing the lifetime of products by making them more durable and encouraging consumers to change their buying patterns also provides a big opportunity.

For production, lean production is by far the most effective strategy. This relates to reducing the amount and type of material input in products, while delivering the same function.

Dr John Barrett from SEI, one of the lead authors, said: "This report outlines a set of strategies that can, collectively, make a real contribution to ambitious and necessary climate change targets.

The report will be presented at “Resource Efficiency: The Future for UK Business” held at the WRAP annual conference, 4th November at the Royal Society.

It will be available to download from the WRAP website www.wrap.org.uk .