The UNEP Environment & Trade Hub inspires and enables countries in developing and implementing sustainable trade policies and trade agreements that foster environmental sustainability and human well-being. The Hub works with public and private partners to offer analyses, research, tools, methodologies, and advisory services. The Hub promotes cooperation between environment and trade communities. This page captures the relevant resources for Extractives & Resources.
Sustainable Trade in Resources: Global Material Flows, Circularity and Trade, 2020
Trade is responsible for much larger amounts of material extraction than direct trade flows indicate when accounting for the additional materials, energy, water and land used in the extraction and production of traded goods but left behind as wastes and emissions in the exporting country. In 2017, the material required for trade was three times the direct trade as more than 35 billion tons of material resources were extracted globally to produce 11 billion tons of directly traded goods. This means that one-third of the total 92 billion tons of material resources extracted in the global economy that year was destined to produce goods for trade.
Such analysis by the International Resource Panel of the materials embodied in trade reveals that resource-intensive processes have shifted from high-income importing countries to low-income exporting countries, with a corresponding shift in associated environmental burdens. Policy analysis by the United Nations Environment Programme Environment & Trade Hub shows how both multilateral trade rules and regional trade agreements can be used proactively to advance the circular economy and minimize the environmental impacts associated with resource extraction.
