Together for resource efficiency

Combine the knowledge of two countries to establish new global standards for SCP.  Germany and Japan are among the leaders in environmental technologies, and they are currently pursuing advancement in the strategic issue of sustainable resource management. Both countries have their own goals and strategies to improve resource productivity. Sharing these ideas and structures offers significant opportunity for mutual collaboration and learning.

 

National policies among all nations can benefit and learn from the exchange of experience between Japan and Germany. The German EU/G8 presidencies in 2007 offered a favourable opportunity to explore and expand international cooperation mechanisms and mutual policy learning, particularly as Japan assumed the presidency of the G8 from Germany in 2008. The overarching national strategy is to reconcile trade-offs in economic and ecological systems and policies. Furthermore it is important to initiate a policy dialogue that includes a diverse group of stakeholders including academia, political leaders and Japanese and European environmental experts.

 

Insight into Japanese resource efficiency strategy

To meet the challenge of gaining a meaningful insight into Japanese strategy the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy and the UNEP/Wuppertal Institute Collaborating Centre on Sustainable Consumption and Production (CSCP) set out to analyse Japanese dematerialisation and resource efficiency strategies.

 

Special attention was paid to strategies within the 3R scope (reduce – reuse – recycle) and measures to enhance resource efficiency including the Top Runner Programme, the Eco Town Programme, green procurement programs and the measurement of material flows. In addition to Japanese strategy, the policy dialogue between Japan and Europe, cooperation and partnerships between experts and stakeholders was also a central element of the project. The results of these policy dialogues and cooperative efforts were analysed at an experts workshop in June of 2007 and during an international conference in November 2007. 

 

Japanese environment policy approaches

Four Japanese environmental policy approaches were found to make significant progress toward improving resource efficiency. The Top Runner Programme was created by the Japanese Ministry of Economy in 1998 as part of the New Energy Conservation Law for improving energy efficiency in energy-using products. Instead of setting a minimum energy performance standard (MEPS), the current highest energy efficiency performance of a given product type is taken as a standard.

 

The Eco Town Programme was also noted as uniquely effective. The main objective of the programme is to reduce resource use through intelligent waste management systems within designated areas. Synergies between urban/regional and environmental planning are maximised through joint planning for the management of resource inputs, wastes, environmental protection measures and optimised industrial and economic development.

 

Among the most successful environmental initiatives in Japan turned out to be green procurement. The law required the national government to define a policy on green purchasing, which was published in 2001. The policy has the objective of outlining a basic direction in favour of public procurement of eco-friendly products.

 

A fourth significant policy instrument was the measurement of material flows. Material Flow Analysis or Accounting (MFA) has been developed and applied to systematically describe the flows of material and resources, products, wastes and emissions. MFA studies have been undertaken in Japan to describe economy-wide, sector, regional, company, process and product related material flows and are critical to the evaluation of the effects of Japanese resource efficiency strategies.

 

Think “outside the box”

The policy dialogue was a central element of the project that strived to involve experts and stakeholders throughout the project. The discussion and dissemination of resource efficiency issues and project results was a key outcome of the cooperation and partnerships realised. The project and the policy dialogue confirmed a strong interest in resource efficiency issues in both Germany and Japan and strategies were enhanced through a mutual interest in gaining international perspectives and a desire to think outside of traditional policy approaches. The project served as a platform upon which future initiatives can be built.

 

Background

The project is part of the series of policy papers entitled “Ressourcenstrategien in Japan” published by the German Federal Environment Agency, the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment, Energy and the UNEP/Wuppertal Institute Collaborating Centre on Sustainable Consumption and Production (CSCP).