World Resources Forum challenges Australia to improve resource efficiency

Australia has some work to do if it’s to remain globally competitive and prosperous post-boom. That’s the message from the World Resources Forum Asia Pacific held in Sydney in June.

Co-hosted by the Institute for Sustainable Futures (ISF) at UTS and SMaRT@UNSW, the forum hosted 300 attendees from countries including Sweden, Japan, China, Taiwan, India, South Korea, Finland, Germany, Switzerland and USA, representing government, industry, academia and NGOs.

Presenting at the forum, Associate Professor Damien Giurco, Research Director at the ISF, said Australian industry and government urgently needed to develop a collective vision for prosperity in a ‘take-make-re-create’ circular economy rather than ‘take-make-dispose’ approach of today.

“There is a massive opportunity for business in Australia to harness the renewable energy transition for innovation in sectors beyond the energy industries such as mining and manufacturing — $270 billion was invested last year in the transition globally. We need to export responsible minerals, and part of this is closing the loop on waste and growing reverse logistics to support circular resource cycles,” said Associate Professor Giurco.

CSIRO Executive Director Energy and Resources, and forum keynote speaker, Alex Wonhas agrees.

“It is possible to grow our economy in a sustainable and prosperous way, as long as we focus on three things: make sure we are developing the capability to understand the possible resource use trajectories; second, put the market and other mechanisms in place to guide our investment; and third, keep working on new and novel solutions and sustainable business,” said Dr Wonhas.

According to recent research from UNEP, Australia uses four times more resources than Japan to deliver the same output in the economy.

“Australia extracts 77 tonnes of materials per person from mining and agriculture per year. Part of that is for export, but 44 out of the 77 tonnes of materials per capita per year stays within Australia’s borders. This is high compared to other countries in the region that on average use approximately 9 tonnes per capita per year and represents an opportunity for resource efficiency and creating wealth from waste,” said UNEP Asia-Pacific Manager, and forum keynote speaker, Janet Salem.

As a whole, the Asia Pacific region uses 53% of the world’s resources yet only generates 25% of the world’s GDP. Salem recommends countries in the region, especially Australia, look to more efficient and intelligent use of resources in areas such as infrastructure and technology in order to remain viable and prosper.

“We are seeing changes in the region; China has already introduced policy framework for a Circular Economy by implementing price and regulatory instruments at a government level, private enterprise has followed suit and introduced the technology to support the circular economy,” said Salem.