Photo Copyright: BMUKN/ Peter-Paul Weiler
The 35th Meeting of the International Resource Panel, co-hosted by UNEP and the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, took place from 8 to 12 June 2026 in Berlin, Germany. The meeting brought together the scientific Panel, Steering Committee Member States and Strategic Partners to the first gathering since the adoption of the IRP’s 2026-2029 Work Programme.
Mr. Carsten Schneider, Federal Minister for Environment, Nature Conservation, Climate Protection and Nuclear Safety, opened the meeting, emphasizing the importance of the work of the IRP to advance science-based policy recommendations on sustainable natural resource use.
Members of the Global Alliance on Circular Economy and Resource Efficiency (GACERE) also attended the meeting. GACERE and IRP exchanged views on how they could join hands to advance shared goals.
Throughout the week, we held exciting scientific debates on concepts such as sufficiency, human development and decoupling human wellbeing and economic growth from natural resource use and its environmental impacts. Experts also discussed scenario modelling approaches for sustainable resource use which can be applied to IRP research.
The Panel approved the technical content of an upcoming scientific assessment report on Advancing Circular Economy in Consumer Electronics. It also approved a rapid study titled ‘Towards a science-based target system for sustainable use of raw materials’, which will be released by the end of the year.
In addition, the meeting allowed in-depth deliberations on ongoing research streams such as the forthcoming Global Resources Outlook 2028, a report on Decarbonizing Global Cities and a new Environmental Impacts Database.
Further, IRP members and partners assessed terms of reference for future work on Resource Efficiency and Circular Economy for a Sustainable Bioeconomy, and a research stream on Critical Transition Minerals.
Finally, participants discussed how to strengthen the IRP’s strategic positioning for greater impact.
The IRP Secretariat would like to thank all participants for their invaluable contributions throughout an intense and successful week, and especially thank our host, the Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation, Climate Protection and Nuclear Safety.
