PowerShift and Inkota Demand Globally Fair Reduction Targets for German Raw Materials Consumption
Berlin, 26 July 2022: On the occasion of the International Earth Overload Day on 28 July, PowerShift and Inkota call on the Federal Government to finally initiate the turnaround in raw materials and to anchor the absolute reduction of metallic raw material consumption to a globally acceptable level as part of the planned revision of the German raw material strategy.
From the 28th of July, the International Earth Overload Day, we are living on Pump from an ecological point of view. This Thursday, the world's population has the annual budget of sustainably usable resources and ecologically manageable CO.2Emissions are being used up worldwide. In order to cover this high consumption, we would need 1.75 earths. This year's German Earth Overload Day was already on May 4.
“Our immense consumption of raw materials is unfair globally! Mining is associated with serious human rights violations and environmental degradation in mining regions. However, the costs are passed on unilaterally to people in the Global South", explains Lara Louisa Siever of the INKOTA network. “If we do not re-direct now and reduce our consumption of raw materials, this is an unreasonable risk for future generations. We can't afford that! Germany's raw materials policy urgently needs to be designed in a globally just and future-oriented manner", demands Lara Siever.
In the coalition agreement, the German government has set itself the goal of reducing primary raw material consumption and strengthening the circular economy. It is now planning to revise Germany's raw materials strategy from 2020, thereby realigning Germany's raw materials policy.
“Germany is the fifth largest consumer of metals in the world. The mining and processing of iron ore into steel and bauxite into aluminium alone account for at least 11 percent of global CO2 emissions.2responsible for emissions. Emissions from metals in circulation could be massively saved. In the interests of climate and resource justice, the German government must now let its words be followed by action and align the German raw materials strategy more sustainably. We need a real raw material transition with concrete targets for an absolute reduction of our metallic raw material consumption", says Michael Reckordt of PowerShift.
The German Raw Materials Strategy was set up for the first time by the Federal Government in 2010 and continued in 2020 and significantly controls Germany's raw materials policy. In the run-up to the 2020 update, INKOTA, PowerShift and other development policy organisations and environmental associations had worked to ensure that human rights, environmental and climate protection serve as the guiding principles of the strategy.
Background information:
Working group on raw materials: Position paper: ‘Legislatur must focus on the raw materials transition’, evaluation of the coalition agreement of the Federal Government from a raw materials policy perspective
Working group on raw materials: Opinion on the update of the German Raw Materials Strategy (2020)
Working group on raw materials: 12 arguments for a turnaround in raw materials
Network Resource Turnaround: Policy brief: Resource protection targets for absolute reduction of resource consumption
Calculation of the International Earth Congestion Day
Contact persons:
Michael Reckordt, Resource Policy Officer, PowerShift e.V., 0163 6336372, michael.reckordt@power-shift.de, Twitter: @MichaelReckordt
Lara Louisa Siever, Policy Officer on Raw Materials, Business and Human Rights, INKOTA-netzwerk e.V., 0157 344 74 810, siever@inkota.de, Twitter: @LaraLouisa16
