Global primary raw material extractions have been growing continuously for decades. Sustainability research therefore stresses the need for more appropriate considerations of planetary boundaries within international resource policy strategies. Research findings from studies focussing on further developments of already established resource policy approaches are also regularly published by international and multilateral institutions (in particular UNEP IRP, but also the OECD as well as the G7, G20 and the European Union). Thus, a comprehensive evidence base can be accessed for the planning of specific long-term resource policy measures.
As a member of the G7, G20 and the EU and as a permanent member of the IRP Steering Committee and the OECD, the Federal Republic of Germany is provided with substantial opportunities to help shape and implement respective resource policy approaches. With extensive consideration of the above-mentioned evidence base, this project supports the Federal Ministry of the Environment (BMU) and the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) in the preparation of respective contributions to international committees and processes. Through regular preparations of sound reviews on selected most recent topical publications from relevant thematic areas (like, for example, resource conservation, resource efficiency and circular economy) as well as more detailed assessments of applied methodological approaches and databases, this project thus provides essential support for Germany's contributions to the further development of international and national resource policy measures.