Resource Efficiency and Climate Change

1. Materials matter for climate strategies. The share of global greenhouse gas emissions from the production of materials increased from 15 per cent (5 Gt CO2 e) in 1995 to 23 per cent (11 Gt) in 2015. The most important material groups by emissions are metals (4.8 Gt), nonmetallic minerals (4.4 Gt), as well as plastics and rubber (1.5 Gt).
2. There are significant opportunities to reduce GHG emissions in the supply and demand of materials. This could occur through (a) increased efficiency of the materials used (for example replacing high-carbon with low-carbon and recycled materials); and (b) reduced emissions in the production of materials by using more efficient production processes; shifting to lowcarbon technologies, raw materials, and energy carriers; and employing CO2 capture and storage.
3. Houses and cars are key sectors to further reduce GHG emissions. Construction and manufactured goods each account for 40 per cent of the GHG emissions associated with global materials use. The most important product from the construction sector is residential buildings, while the most important manufactured product is vehicles. This report assesses options to reduce GHG emissions associated with the material cycle of homes and cars while considering trade-offs with energy use during building and vehicle operation.
4. Designing low-carbon cars and houses can help further reduce GHG emissions. The design of products such as houses and vehicles determines how much material they contain, the energy requirement for manufacturing and operations, durability and ease of reuse and recycling. Assessments of different emissions reduction strategies need to consider potential trade-offs and synergies in GHG emissions across the life-cycle stages of a product.
5. The material efficiency angle. Existing policy frameworks such as sustainable materials management, the circular economy, a sound material-cycle society, resource efficiency, material efficiency and reduce-reuse-recycle (3Rs) are widely used in G7 countries. They all focus on reducing the demand for primary materials and increasing the use of secondary materials through reuse and recycling. This report focuses on material efficiency, in particular the contribution of the life cycle of materials to global greenhouse gas emissions.

source :

https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/34351/RECCR.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y