From barriers to opportunities: Enabling investments in resource efficiency for sustainable development

Abstract

Increasing investments in resource efficiency is considered essential for transitioning towards a sustainable model of economic growth. This article presents evidence on the complex incentives, trade-offs, and challenges associated with the economics and politics of resource efficiency investments, especially in light of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Agreement. By synthesising and evaluating a wide range of empirical evidence, practitioners' insights, and policy perspectives, this article carefully examines the role of resource efficiency in reconciling environmental and economic objectives. It makes particular reference to the investment barriers and transitional implications of moving economies towards more circular and resource efficient pathways. In doing so, it provides a policy-oriented guide and toolbox to help overcome barriers, unlock the economic potential of resource efficiency, and highlight the challenges associated with the resource transition. Overall, this article brings together evidence, aiming to further develop and propose new strategies for improving the efficient use of natural resources to advance the sustainable development agenda.

Resource efficiency and decarbonisation of economies in the European Union

“…DMC includes all domestic material resources, plus the imported material resources, minus the exported ones, combining several different material types with their weight as a common unit of account. Flachenecker et al ( , 2019) looked into the definition, limitations and evolution of this indicator often used to monitor the progress towards the UN SDGs (UN, 2020).…”

Circular Economy and Environmental Sustainability: A Policy Coherence Analysis of Current Italian Subsidies

“…Since the paper shifts the conventional environmental perspective to adopt a CE one, it opens new links with research related to CE policies, particularly with the area of policy mixes for the CE [24][25][26][27][28] and with the sub-area of economic instruments for the CE. The main contributions in the latter sub-area currently concern the potential of environmental economics in favoring the CE [29], taxation of non-renewable resources [30,31], optimal taxation frameworks for CE [32] and designing of direct subsidies to overcome investment barriers to eco-innovation [6,7]: these are all bordering but different areas from the issue of policy coherence of subsidies raised by this paper. The literature context of the paper is traced in the policy-oriented research streams on fossil fuel subsidies (FFS) and environmentally harmful subsidies (EHS), on which the current chapter will focus on.…”

“…Economic instruments contribute to the mix of policy instruments, with command and control regulatory instruments, voluntary agreements, and information-based instruments [5]. In a CE policy framework, subsidies are used to overcome the financial and economic barriers to the investments needed to increase the recycling capacity of the waste industry to support expensive resource efficiency projects and to promote the organizational and behavioral changes in production and consumption [6][7][8].…”

Importance of the Public Service in Achieving the UN SDGS

“…-With the drive towards promoting sustainable consumption and production (Flachenecker and Rentschler, 2019), there is a need for the public service to make effective use of resources available to coordinate activities geared towards sustaining healthy wellbeing for citizens. In this regard, efforts must be made to replenish renewable resources for the benefit of present and future generations.…”