Earlier this week, EU Environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik called raw material consumption related to GDP "the best available proxy" for assessing resource efficiency. He added that a resource efficiency target based on the metric would be introduced in that the Commission's circular economy package expected out later this month. In an address at the opening of the Green Week conference in Brussels, he acknowledged that while the metric was not perfect, the resource efficiency target would not be legally binding, and it would give clear political direction and fill the need for a simple inspirational target.
Describing the objectives of the Commission's legislative initiative, he said the package would be intended to raise all of Europe to the level the best performing countries were achieving now, he said noting that some member states were al-ready reaching recycling rates of 70 per cent with zero landfill, while in other countries the figures were reversed.
