Reports

Natural Resource Use in the Group of 20: Status, trends, and solutions

Dissemination materials from the International Resource Panel

Land Restoration for Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals

Land restoration has tremendous potential to help the world limit climate change and achieve its aims for sustainable development. In its latest study, the International Resource...

Global Resources Outlook

Through a combination of resource efficiency, climate mitigation, carbon removal, and biodiversity protection policies, this report finds that it is feasible and possible to grow...

Mineral Resource Governance in the 21st Century

The mining sector, if carefully managed, presents enormous opportunities for advancing sustainable development particularly in low-income countries, the International Resource Panel...

Re-defining Value – The Manufacturing Revolution

Re-thinking how we manufacture industrial products and deal with them at the end of their useful life could provide breakthrough environmental, social and economic benefits. Adopting...

The Weight of Cities

We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to shift future urbanization on to a more environmentally sustainable and socially just path. The Weight of Cities suggests a new approach to...

Assessing Global Resource Use

Better and more efficient production and use of natural resources can be one of the most cost-efficient and effective ways to reduce impacts on the environment (including pollution)...

Green Technology Choices

What happens when low-carbon electricity supply technologies are deployed alongside energy efficiency technologies? The International Resource Panel's assessment looks at the...

Resource Efficiency

This report analyzes four paths that countries could take over the next three decades, ranging from business as usual to a scenario where countries adopt both ambitious climate...

Global Material Flows and Resource Productivity (with database link)

Growing concern about assuring affordable, equitable and environmentally sustainable access to natural resources is well founded. In this report we show global natural resource use...

Decoupling 2

This report explores technological possibilities and opportunities for both developing and developed countries to accelerate decoupling and reap the environmental and economic benefits...

Unlocking the Sustainable Potential of Land Resources:

Land resources are one of nature’s most precious gifts. They feed us and help our societies and economies to thrive. This report examines how to better evaluate and use the potential...

Food Systems and Natural Resources

Food systems depend on natural resources. But population growth, and dietary changes due to growing wealth, are creating pressures on those resources. Transforming our food systems is...

Green Energy Choices: the Benefits, Risks and Trade-Offs of Low-Carbon Technologies for Electricity Production

Low-carbon electricity generation could help meet demand while reducing climate change. But new technologies could create new environmental problems. This report aids informed decision...

10 Key Messages on Climate Change

This note draws on the findings of the United Nations’ expert panel on natural resources – the International Resource Panel (IRP) – to highlight some key policy-relevant messages on...

International Trade in Resources

International trade is indispensable for countries to meet demand for resources not available, accessible or affordable domestically. This report looks at implications of rapidly...

Policy Coherence of the Sustainable Development Goals

Building Natural Capital: How REDD+ Can Support a Green Economy

This report, on the status and future potential of REDD+, describes the benefits of forests and other ecosystems as a way of demonstrating that forests have multiple values beyond...

Assessing Global Land Use

This report examines the impacts of global trends - population growth, urbanization, changes in diets and consumption behaviours - on global land use, considering biodiversity, the...

Environmental Risks and Challenges of Anthropogenic Metals Flows and Cycles

Metal production is responsible for 7-8% of global energy use as well severe environmental impacts. Recycling would decrease both, but even if recycling increased, rising global demand...

Metal Recycling

A global move to a Product-Centric approach, in which recycling targets specific components of a product and devises ways to separate and recover them, is essential. This report...

City-Level Decoupling

Most resource consumption takes place in cities. How a city is designed shapes how its inhabitants use transport, energy and water, and dispose of waste. The challenge is to build...

Measuring Water Use in a Green Economy

How do we meet the water, energy, land and material needs of up to 9 billion people, while keeping climate change, biodiversity loss and health threats within planetary boundaries?

Responsible Resource Management for a Sustainable World

This report brings together highlights of five previous reports to enable policy-makers and business leaders to begin decoupling economic activity from resource use to allow the global...

Recycling Rates of Metals

Recycling rates of metals are far lower than potential for reuse. Less than one-third of 60 studied have a recycling rate above 50 per cent, though many are crucial to clean...

Decoupling Natural Resource Use and Environmental Impacts from Economic Growth

We are using unsustainable amounts of the Earth’s natural resources. We need to improve the rate of resource productivity (“doing more with less”) faster than the economic growth rate...

Metal Stocks in Society

A key question that relates to the very broad and intensive use of metals is whether society needs to be concerned about long-term supplies of any or many of them. To examine this...

Assessing the Environmental Impacts of Consumption and Production

This report gives a scientific assessment of which global environmental problems present the biggest challenges, and weighs up the impacts of various economic activities to identify...

Assessing Biofuels

This report provides a robust assessment of key problems of production and use of biomass for energy purposes and options for more efficient and sustainable production and use of...