Advocating for effective resources policy

Effective resources policy should ensure everyone’s needs are met without exceeding planetary boundaries. But current resource use is having a severe impact on the environment. Resource extraction and processing drive 90% of biodiversity loss and account for over 55% of global emissions. Wealthy countries like the UK are consuming more than their fair share and placing unsustainable demands on the planet’s limited resources.  

By using materials more efficiently, reducing overall material demand, and adopting circular business models, the UK can make substantial progress.  

Our work explores the policy solutions needed to make this a reality, helping the government recognise the risks of inaction and demonstrating how to best shape resource policy to maximise benefits for the environment, people, and the economy.  

Ambitious resource policy has not been a political priority for the UK government, and progress has repeatedly stalled. Our core work on resources focuses on shifting this political landscape and exploring practical policy solutions to bring resource use within planetary boundaries. 

While much of our research on achieving a circular economy is delivered through our Circular Economy Task Force, our broader resources work has covered areas including the wider impacts of circular economy policies, the political barriers to ambitious resources policy, and resource reduction targets. 

Read our most recent reports:

We are committed to working across the environmental sector, with businesses, and with groups from diverse sectors on urgent resource related issues, convening stakeholders to drive impactful campaigns. 

In 2022, we brought together environmental and health groups to cosign a letter to the government, highlighting the escalating threat of disposable vapes to children’s health and the environment and calling for a ban. At that time, two devices per second were being discarded in the UK, wasting enough lithium to power 1,200 electric vehicles. By maintaining pressure through this coalition, we successfully secured a ban.

Improving the efficiency of resources could save up to 28% of the UK’s total CO2 emissions. Public buy-in will be an important part of the success or failure of innovative proposals to improve resource efficiency, so policymakers’ decisions should be informed by evidence on public attitudes and engagement.