The International Resource Panel's (IRP) evidence-based reports and findings are designed to inform policy-makers and influence the views, performance and decisions of those who have an impact on the use of natural resources, their environmental impacts and sustainability.

Through the IRP’s body of work, sustainable resource management became a more visible and urgent policy priority within a number of critical resource managers (including non-traditional IRP audiences like the G20, the G7, business and climate change stakeholders).

Examples of our impacts on leading global policy and influential bodies include:

2022

Policy Plans
  • Declaration on a Resilient and healthy Environment for All

    Institution: OECD

    Date: March 2022

    IRP contribution: this legal instrument recognizes with utmost concern the recent reports by the IRP and “the need for the international community to use the evidence provided within them to take strong, urgent and transformative action to address climate change, halt and reverse biodiversity loss, prevent pollution, ensure the sound management of chemicals and waste, use resources more efficiently, and address land degradation and ocean deterioration, ensuring these issues are central in our COVID-19 recovery strategies.”

Reports
Private Sector Strategies and Guidelines
  • The evolution towards a Circular Economy

    Institution: Goldman Sachs

    Date: May 2022

    IRP contribution: the report uses IRP data on natural resources for their analysis of recycling rates of different materials.

2021

Policy Plans
  • G20 Environment Minister's Communiqué 

    Institution: G20

    Date: July 2021

    IRP contribution:  IRP Co-Chair Janez Potocnik’s intervention at the G20 Environment Ministers’ Meeting and the Panel’s work contribute to the G20 Communiqué’s call for action on sustainable and circular resource use. The document highlights that resource efficiency and circular economy are important tools for achieving the SDGs, advancing sustainable consumption and production, and addressing the triple environmental crisis. The IRP is identified as a critical partner to help drive progress in the area.

  • Norway's National Strategy for Circular Economy

    Institution: Norwegian Ministry of Climate and Environment

    Date: June 2021

    IRP contribution: the document references Global Resources Outlook 2019 findings to illustrate the importance of circular economy to increase sustainability and value creation. It also recognises the IRP’s contribution among other panels to the global knowledge base for circular economy.

  • G7 Climate and Environment: Ministers' Communiqué

    Institution: G7

    Date: May 2021

    IRP contribution: the Communiqué refers to IPBES, IPCC, IRP and UNEP’s scientific assessments to call for rapid and far-reaching transformations to tackle environmental crises. It also recalls the findings of the IRP Global Resources Outlook 2019 and underlines the importance of the transition to the sustainable and legal use of natural resources, reaffirming the commitment to action on resource efficiency and transition to a more circular economy, in line with the Bologna Roadmap.

  • New Circular Economy Action Plan

    Institution: European Commission

    Date: February 2021

    IRP contribution: the New EU Circular Economy Action Plan is one of the main building blocks of the European Green Deal. IRP's Resource Efficiency and Climate Change report was used as a reference point for strategies on material efficiency and climate impact reduction in construction and buildings.

 
Reports
  • Delivering resource-efficient products

    Institution: European Environmental Bureau

    Date: July 2021

    IRP contribution: the European Environmental Bureau’s report highlights the need for delivering resource-efficient products by outlining the projections done by the IRP regarding future resource consumption.

  • Making peace with nature: A Scientific Blueprint to tackle the climate, biodiversity and pollution emergencies

    Institution: United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

    Date: February 2021 

    IRP contribution: this first UNEP synthesis report is based on evidence from global environmental assessments, including IPCC, IPBES, GEO, and IRP, translating scientific knowledge into accessible and applicable messages for the worlds’ leaders and shows how climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution can be addressed jointly within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals.

 
Private Sector Strategies and Guidelines

 

2020

Policy Plans
  •  Project of Productivity Strategy 2030

    Institution: Government of Poland

    Date: October 2020

    IRP contribution: the document refers to findings from the IRP Global Resources Outlook 2019 and Decoupling reports to identify key areas for transition towards the economy of the future and the role of resources in increasing productivity, innovation, and adaptation to global macrotrends.

  • European Green Deal

    Institution: European Commission

    Date: January 2020

    IRP contribution: within the European Green Deal (Europe’s framework of action on sustainable development), references to the IRP's "Global Resource Outlook 2019" were included in the main document and related official communication from the European Commission. The European Commission describes the  European Green Deal as "[…] a new growth strategy that aims to transform the EU into a fair and prosperous society, with a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy where there are no net emissions of greenhouse gases in 2050 and where economic growth is decoupled from resource use". Resource efficiency is flagged multiple times throughout the document.

 
Reports
  • Human Development Report 2020

    Institution: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

    Date: December 2020 

    IRP contribution: UNEP and the IRP provided inputs for the development of UNDP’s flagship report which focuses on meeting people’s aspirations in balance with the planet. It also assesses the pathways for sustainable human development, upgrading both its conceptual and analytical frameworks, including the Human Development Index (HDI), by bringing in the environmental dimension more explicitly. IRP Co-Chairs, a number of Panel members, and Head of the Secretariat participated and co-organized some sessions of the consultative symposium during the Human Development Report 2020 preparation process.

  • G20 Report on Actions against Marine Plastic Litter : Second Information Sharing based on the G20 Implementation Framework

    Institution: Group of Twenty (G20)

    Date: November 2020

    IRP contribution: This G20 report seeks to promote policies and measures with regards to reducing marine plastic litter among G20 members and non-G20 members, incorporating IRP’s assessments and approaches to address the issue. The report was prepared by the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, with the support of the Ministry of the Environment, Japan, and the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) as a follow-up of the G20 Implementation Framework for Actions on Marine Plastic Litter

  • Insights from Global Environmental Assessments-Lessons for the Netherlands

    Institution: PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency

    Date: 14 September 2020

    IRP contribution: this study synthesizes findings of five recent assessments in the fields of climate, land-use, biodiversity loss, and resource use, from which, lessons are drawn for Dutch sustainability transitions. IRP's "Global Resources Outlook 2019" report is one of the five key assessments to inform the Netherlands' policy making surrounding sustainable resource use.

  • Roadmaps for Buildings and Construction 2020-2050

    Institutions: Global Alliance for Buildings, Construction (GlobalABC) & International Energy Agency (IEA)

    Date: July 2020

    IRP contribution: the Global and Regional Roadmaps for Buildings and Construction in Africa, Asia and Latin America help set targets and pathways to achieve zero-emission from the built environment along the full life cycle. The Roadmaps include references to and recommendations from the IRP's "Resource Efficiency and Climate Change" report and "The Weight of Cities" report.

  • Recover Better: Economic and Social Challenges and Opportunities

    Institution: UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA)

    Date: 22 July 2020

    IRP contribution: the report includes one full chapter of Co-Chair Izabella Teixeira and the Panel's messages on the key role decoupling plays in the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and the recovery from COVID-19, authored by Co-Chair Izabella Teixeira, Victor Valido and Yi-Ann Chen of the IRP Secretariat.

  • Protecting the Planet and Building Resilience

    Institutions: High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) & UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA)

    Date: 7 to 16 July 2020

    IRP contribution: the IRP has contributed to the background paper of the HLPF 2020 Session. The HLPF annual meeting is the core United Nations platform for follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals.



 

  • The Use of Natural Resources in the Economy: A Global Manual on Economy-Wide Material Flow Accounting

    Institution: UN Committee of Experts on Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA)

    Date: August 2020

    IRP contribution: the report was presented jointly by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the IRP, the United Nations Statistic Division, and the European Commission at the Fifteenth Meeting of the UN Committee of Experts on Environmental-Economic Accounting. Panel member Heinz Schandl is one of the lead authors.

  • The Integration of Climate Change and Circular Economy in Foreign Policies

    Institution: European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM)

    Date: June 2020

    IRP contribution: findings from the IRP "Global Resources Outlook 2019" report was indirectly referenced by stating that "from 1970 to 2017, the annual global extraction of materials tripled and the increase continues, presenting a serious risk... approximately half of total greenhouse gas emissions and over 90% of biodiversity loss and water stress come from resource extraction and processing of materials, fuels and food".

  • European Forest Governance Post-2020

    Institution: European Forest Institute (EFI)

    Date: 29 April 2020

    IRP contribution: the EFI is an international organization founded by European countries, focusing on forest-related issues and connecting knowledge to action. This report aims to outline potential pathways for future European forest policymaking. The IRP "Global Resource Outlook 2019" report was referenced.

  • Monitoring International Resource Policy (Monitoring international Ressourcenpolitik) 

    Institution: Umwelt Bundesamt (German Environment Agency)

    Date: March 2020

    IRP contribution: the study was designed to survey, monitor, and analyze international policy developments in the sustainable management of natural resources. It highlights that in the past few years, international, European, and national discussions have increasingly placed importance on the sustainable use of natural resources, and shaped the environmental policy debate through resource efficiency, with reference to the IRP and its "Global Resources Outlook" report.

 
Private Sector Strategies and Guidelines
  • CEO Guide to the Circular Bioeconomy

    Institutions: World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) & Boston Consulting Group (BCG)

    Date: February 2020

    IRP contribution: this publication calls for a shift towards a sustainable, low-carbon, and circular bio-economy, highlighting findings from the IRP "Global Resource Outlook 2019" report.

 



2019

Policy Plans
  • Zero Waste Masterplan Singapore

    Institutions: Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources, Government of Singapore & National Environment Agency Singapore

    Date: September 2019

    IRP contribution: Singapore's inaugural Zero Waste Masterplan maps out Singapore's key strategies for transition to a sustainable, resource-efficient and climate-resilient nation. IRP's "Assessing Global Resource Use" report was referenced.

  • National Resource Efficiency Policy 2019 (Draft)

    Institution: Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India

    Date: July 2019

    IRP contribution: the National Resource Efficiency Policy aims to establish a facilitative and regulatory environment to mainstream resource efficiency across all sectors in India. The IRP "Resource Efficiency" report was used as a reference point in the draft policy plan.

  • French Strategy for Energy and Climate-Multi Annual Energy Plan

    Institution: Ministère de la Transition Ecologique et Solidaire (Ministry for the Ecological Transition)

    Date: 01 April 2019

    IRP contribution: this strategy is part of the French Multi-Annual Energy Plan (MAEP), which sets the priorities for government action regarding energy policy for Metropolitan France in the next decade, shared in two 5-year periods (2019-2023; 2024-2028). The Panel's scenarios developed to capture the link between climate change and resources were referenced.

  • UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-4) Resolutions and Declarations

    Institution: UN Environment Assembly (UNEA)

    Date: 11 to 15 March 2019

    IRP contribution: IRP messages on resource efficiency were promoted by the UN Deputy Secretary General, the president of Kenya and other high-level stakeholders at the fourth session of the UNEA. In the session, more than 10 events and interventions were linked to the IRP flagship report "Global Resources Outlook 2019". Among the 24 UNEA Resolutions/Declarations resulting from the session, four mentioned the IRP and its work, and required further input from the IRP.

 
Reports
  • Emissions Gap Report 2019

    Institution: United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

    Date: December 2019

    IRP Contribution: Chapter 7 of this UNEP flagship report was written by IRP member Edgar Hertwich based on the IRP report "Resource Efficiency and Climate Change". The Emissions Gap Report provides the latest data on the status and trends of global greenhouse gas emissions. It also compares where greenhouse gas emissions are headed, against where they should be to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. The 2019 Report highlights IRP's call for efficient use of materials with detailed modeling results and policy recommendations.

  • Climate Action Pathways 2020

    Institution: United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

    Date: November 2019

    IRP contribution: the Climate Action Pathways documents are prepared by the coalitions and initiatives of the Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action and the High-Level Champions Team. The documents outline the sectoral visions for a 1.5-degree climate-resilient world by 2050 and set out actions needed to achieve that future. The thematic area of Human Settlement includes findings from the IRP's "The Weight of Cities" report.

 
2019 Others
  • Joint Ministerial Statement of the Green Group at the Climate Change Conference (COP25)

    Institution: Green Group (Slovenia, Iceland, Costa Rica, Singapore, Cabo Verde, and the United Arab Emirates)

    Date: 2-13 December 2019

    IRP contribution: the Green Group was established to promote green policies and awareness on environmental issues in the international sphere. Its joint Ministerial Statement at COP25 highlighted that Members of the Green Group value the Panel's work and its emphasis on the need for immediate action to ensure long-term patterns of sustainable consumption and production. 

  • E-learning Course on Resource Efficiency

    Institution: UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia (ESCAP)

    Date: July 2019

    IRP contribution: ESCAP and the IRP had jointly developed an e-learning course on Resource Efficiency that provides policy-makers and sustainable development practitioners information on the key concepts of Resource Efficiency, the ways to measure it, the important role it plays in the context of sustainable development, as well as policy pathways for promoting Resource Efficiency, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. The e-learning course was launched in July 2019 and is available on the ESCAP SDG Help Desk platform.

  • Sustainable Consumption and Production Hotspots Analysis Tool (SCP-HAT)

    Institutions: UNEP & One Planet Network

    Date: 11 March 2019

    IRP contribution: this tool was developed as a joint initiative between UNEP’s Life Cycle Initiative, One Planet Network and IRP. The online application builds on IRP Global Material Flow Database to analyze the environmental and socio-economic performance of 171 countries over the past 25 years to provide scientific evidence of areas where improvement can be made along the supply chain of the goods and services.