Slowly but surely, our planet is running out of raw materials. Half of the world‘s minable oil reserves have already been used up and in around 30 to 40 years the oil reserves that we know about and are able to access will have dried up. Already we are not able to increase the amount of oil we mine each year by any significant amount. In less that ten years, we are likely to have pumped dry all the oil deposits in the European Union. For metal deposits the situation is similarly bleak. Our minable lead and zinc reserves will last another 20 years. Copper reserves will likely only last as long as the oil reserves. We are rapidly running out of raw materials, and extracting them from the earth is becoming more and more expensive. And all the time, demand is growing.
By 2020 the global population will reach some eight billion people – about 20% more than today. If we stick to our current ways, more people will inevitably mean more demand. Growing prosperity in India and China is already putting additional pressure on resources. Global consumption of copper, for example, grew by 30% every year between 1996 and 2006. China alone accounted for 21% of global consumption of copper in 2005; its per capita consumption of steel has more than doubled over the last six years.
Material efficiency can bring cost reductions of up to 20% in raw materials – as well as benefiting the environment.
The market volume for bioplastics is growing by up to 35% each year.
Industrial biotechnology is showing double-digit growth. Outstanding growth opportunities are expected for the chemicals industry – according to forecasts, the market will be worth more than EUR 170 billion by 2020.
In 2020, 160 billion liters of biofuel will be filling the tanks of vehicles around the globe.
Innovative materials from Germany can reduce resource consumption. For example, the use of steel can be reduced by 40%. “Liquid wood” is another new raw material that can be used in plastics processing and the automotive industry.
The market for material efficiency leads the way in research and development – and excellent growth opportunities are expected.
First and foremost, shrinking supplies of raw materials and price swings are a problem for the manufacturing industry. Here, raw materials make up around 40% of companies‘ total costs, compared to just 25% for labor. Germany is particularly susceptible to developments on the raw materials market due to its own meager supplies. Currently, most of Germany‘s requirements are met by imports. The share of imports in total raw materials used in Germany grew from 26% to 37% between 1994 and 2007. In 2007, Germany imported more than EUR 76 billion worth of raw materials. In other words, the environmental impact of taking raw materials from the earth is increasingly being shifted abroad. In addition, this dependency on imports has sparked heated debate in Germany and the European Union over the security of raw material supplies.
Of course, this is not just a problem for industry. Increased consumption of raw materials also puts a considerable burden on the environment. Extracting, transporting and processing raw materials produces carbon dioxide and many other pollutants that have a serious impact on the climate. Today, people are extracting raw materials in remote regions where it would previously have been uneconomical to do so. Oil mining in Alaska, deep-sea oil rigs, mining in primeval forests – today‘s high prices for raw materials mean that mining can be financially viable even at greater costs. Greater costs to the pocket, but often to the environment too. Extracting oil from Canada‘s oil sands reserves, for example, produces three to five times as much CO2 per ton mined than conventional mining.
In September 2008, the member states of the European Union passed two new proposals by the EU Commission aimed at reducing Europe’s energy consumption. One proposal dealt with eco-design standards for electronic equipment when in standby mode. The other set out norms for the lighting of streets, offices and industrial buildings – and its implementation will save as much electricity by 2020 as the whole of Romania uses today. The Commission officially adopted both directives in January 2009.
