From data to decisions: material footprints in European policy making

While the overall material footprint — or the amount of raw materials extracted from nature in and outside the EU to deliver goods and services — remained stable over the past decade, more measures need to be taken to reduce resource consumption in the housing and food sectors, according to a European Environment Agency analysis published today.

Housing and food are particular hotspots for resource consumption, accounting for 72% of the EU’s material footprint and requiring the highest amount of material per Euro spent, according to the EEA briefing ‘From data to decisions: material footprints in European policy making‘, which highlights how existing Eurostat data on our European material footprint can inform policymakers in formulating new measures to reduce our economic footprint on the environment.

The EEA briefing analyses the data and assesses the trends from 2010 to 2021 as a means of understanding how the use of biomass, metals, non-metallic minerals and fossils has contributed to the overall material footprint.

To understand what drives material resource use in the EU, total consumption is assessed across six areas of consumption, namely housing, food, services, household goods and services, clothing and footwear, and personal mobility.
Using this information, policymakers can focus efforts to reduce material consumption where the highest potential for reduction lies and, as a result, reduce the demand for raw materials.

The level of resource use in the EU is very high, higher than in most other regions of the world. High resource use is responsible for severe environmental degradation across the world, linked to climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. In our current linear economic model, prosperity is largely based on the use of resources extracted from nature.

Globally, the extraction and processing of natural resources to feed our production and consumption systems produce more than half of all greenhouse gas emissions and around 40% of particulate matter emissions – a type of pollution that is very harmful to human health. Extraction and processing also drive over 90% of land-based biodiversity loss.

It is, therefore, imperative to try to reduce primary resource consumption, as recognised by the EU’s Eighth Environment Action Programme which is the EU’s response to the environmental challenges posed by resource use and calls for a significant reduction of the EU’s material footprint as soon as is possible.

Read the briefing