Resource efficiency benefits both industry and the environment
Today the kick-off event for the G7 Alliance for Resource Efficiency co-chaired by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety is taking place in the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. The G7 Alliance for Resource Efficiency was launched at the initiative of the German federal government by the heads of state and government at their summit on 7 and 8 June 2015 at Schloss Elmau. The Alliance for Resource Efficiency aims to share best practices on how to use natural resources more efficiently. This is at the same time, a contribution to secure existing jobs and create new ones, to strengthen the growth of the economies in quantitative and qualitative terms and to improve environmental protection. In addition, the Alliance is to strengthen the pioneering role of the G7 countries in the field of resource efficiency as signal for other countries.
Matthias Machnig, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, said: " The G7 Alliance for Resource Efficiency Resource brings the economies of the seven strongest industrial nations even more in line with environmental needs. This is an important impetus for more innovation, investment and sustainability. Resource efficiency is a forward-looking issue which impacts on jobs, products and markets, both today and in the future.Today, around 1.5 million persons in Germany work in the environmental sector. In the field of environmental technologies, Germany has a market share of 15%. The federal government's G7 initiative makes a major contribution to ensuring that Germany remains an attractive place to do business into the future."
Rita Schwarzelühr-Sutter, Parliamentary State at the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety, declared: "In the last 30 years, global consumption of raw materials has doubled. One fifth of the world's population consumes about four fifths of the total of minerals and metals extracted. This must not and cannot remain the case in future. Therefore, it is important to strengthen international cooperation in the field of resource efficiency and to share best practices more rapidly worldwide. This is precisely the objective of the G7 Alliance for Resource Efficiency, which we agreed on at the G7 summit in Elmau under Germany's presidency and which we are launching today."
At today's kick-off event, all G7 countries are represented by delegations comprising representatives of governments, business, trade unions and research/science. The European Commission will also be represented at the conference.
Further events on the issue of resource efficiency are to take place at G7 level in Birmingham at the end of October and in Berlin in November 2015. Ahead of today's event, the G7 government delegations met in the last two days for talks with representatives of international organizations (including the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, the International Labour Organisation and the United Nations Environment Programme) in order to discuss the strengthening of resource efficiency global level.