The Factor 10 Institute Blog

Vorträge des World Resource Forum in Davos September 2009

Preamble

The recent financial crisis has dramatically shown how flimsy the banking and investment institutions are that were supposed to be so robust, and how vulnerable they are to false expectations of continued rapid growth and consequent over-exploitation of the monetary and fiscal arrangements that serve as surrogates for the real economy.
What is true of the economic system is also true of the ecosystem. Beyond a critical threshold, the services that the biosphere has evolved and provided over millions of years can breakdown with little warning and with much loss to human, social and economic values.
The underlying deficiencies that can cause failure or collapse of ecosystems are much the same as for economic systems: short term profit maximization, toxic by-products, wrong pricing signals, and the failure by governments to implement precautionary policies because of insufficient controls and inadequate early warning systems. The surprise element is enhanced by the absence of proper accounting methods and the scarcity of requisite skills in systems analysis and management.
The extent to which the economy and material wealth can grow are constrained by the limits set by the Earth’s resource endowments. Technology and innovation can in some cases extend these limits, but rarely by very much.
We, the supporters of this Declaration, strongly believe that economic stability in our finite world depends on how quickly we can introduce low impact production systems that can satisfy human needs and bring quality of life to all people.
Traditional environmental technologies are no longer enough. Decoupling the meeting of human needs from the use of nature’s resources will require radically new infrastructures, goods, services, processes, systems and business models. While some changes in lifestyle, consumption patterns and production systems will certainly be necessary, it is technically possible to achieve this without abandoning the things that we value most.
It is now widely accepted that wellbeing is more than material consumption. Human fulfillment includes factors such as education, health, safety, freedom from violence, environmental quality, social embeddedness, leisure, and equity. Despite huge technological progress, many aspects of human wellbeing have not increased in industrialized countries since the mid 1970s; some are even declining.
We call for a new global strategy for governing the use of natural resources that generates fair access to them for present needs while maintaining their availability for future generations. By combining efficiency and resource productivity targets with sufficiency norms evolved through participative mechanisms, it should be possible to avoid the traditional type of growth rebound effect sometimes experienced.

 further information

„Auf dem Höhepunkt der schlimmsten Finanzkrise seit Jahrzehnten
kommen Topbanker nicht nach Davos, um den Warnungen kritischer
Zeitgenossen zuzuhören, sondern um sich zu amüsieren und um Kunden
zu buhlen“ klagte der Vater des von ihm 1971 gegründeten
Weltwirtschaftforum, Klaus Schwab, im Oktober letzten Jahres.

Die Gründe der gegenwärtigen Finanz- und Wirtschaftskrise sind
weitgehend dieselben wie die der drohenden Umweltkatastrophe.
Allerdings mit dem Unterschied, dass der Kollaps der lebenswichtigen
ökologischen Funktionen nicht reparierbar ist.

Vom 14. bis 16. September dieses Jahres gibt es in Davos eine
Weltpremiere: „Wir wollen der Welt zeigen, warum es eine
lebensgefährliche Umweltkrise gibt und wir wollen realistische Vorschläge
zu ihrer Lösung diskutieren“, sagt Xaver Edelmann, der Präsident des
ersten WeltRessourcenForum in Davos.

Angeregt von Friedrich Schmidt-Bleek vor zwei Jahren, entwickelte und
organisiert die Empa in St Gallen dieses ambitiöse Unterfangen,
zusammen mit ihrer altbewährten Weltkonferenz zu Recyklingsfragen (R
09). Fachlich wird sie unterstützt durch das Faktor 10 Institute in
Frankreich, der Schweizerischen Akademie der Technischen
Wissenschaften (SATW) und dem EcoTopia Science Institute der
Universität Nagoya – sowie einer großen Zahl von Fachleuten aus aller
Welt.

weiterlesen unter Welt Resource Forum

en francais Forum Économique Mondial

in englisch World Resource Forum

a-solution-named-dematerialisation.pdf

There are two main reasons why traditional environmental policies have to be improved:-

1. The climatic change is real and stands out as a strong signal for the fact that traditional environmental and economic policies have failed to prevent major environmental breakdowns;-

2. The environmental crisis has largely the same roots as the financial catastrophe: Market failures due to systems incompetence; lack of valid indicators, of early warning systems, and of precautionary policies; short term profit maximization; marketing „poisonous products“; and prices that do not tell the truth.

There are two main reasons why dematerialization is unavoidable:-

1. There are not enough resources (material, water, land surface) on planet earth for expanding the western life-style to 8 or 9 billion people;-

2. The resource intensity of the western life-style is the physical root cause for significant losses in eco-system functions and services with consequences such as climatic change, pervasive water shortages, desertification, erosion, and loss of species.

There are two main reasons why governments must act for approaching sustainability:-

1. Only governments can adjust economic frameworks in order to render sustainable production and consumption profitable;-

2. Governments are responsible for international cooperation.

if you want to read more, open the a-solution-named-dematerialisation.pdf