The impact of the European economy is now nearly three times larger than what is required for a sustainable world.
Today Europe uses 20 per cent of what the world’s ecosystems provide and yet is home to only 7 per cent of the world population. If present patterns of production and consumption continue unchecked, the human economy will be double the available biocapacity by 2050, and we will need the equivalent of two planet earths to support us.
The choices we make today will shape our opportunities far into the future. The cities, power stations and homes we build in the next few years could lock human society into wasteful use of energy and other resources beyond our lifetimes, or they could begin to propel us and future generations towards a new and more balanced way of living.
Europe, as the world’s largest economy must embark upon an immediate and major transformation to avert dangerous climate change and prevent ecosystem collapse. A shift to a more sustainable future will require a significant mobilisation and behavioural change of actors and institutions from every aspect of society.
THE OPEN PROJECT
One Planet Economy Network (OPEN: EU) is a two year, EU 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7) funded project.
There are eight international partners involved in the project, which brings together European and global leaders in the fields of resource accounting, policy and scenario development, stakeholder engagement and project management.
By bringing together the Ecological, Carbon and Water Footprint indicators through the same trade model, this will enable a calculation of each of these indicators for the whole of the EU-27. The project will use sophisticated multi-regional input-output analysis for this and will build upon the outputs of the EU Framework 6 project EXIOPOL. All results will be made freely available.
The indicators will be brought to life in an on-line ‘next generation’ scenario and modelling tool: EUREAPA (European Resources and Energy Analysis Programme Application). EUREAPA will to enable policy makers to forecast and back-cast, assess policy options and produce scenarios for any EU country or the EU as a whole. A series of One Planet Europe scenarios will be developed as part of the project with close consultation and input from the EU, member states and key decision-makers. The software tool will be made freely available across the EU for no-for-profit purposes.
Achieving this next great transition or industrial evolution to a One Planet Economy in Europe can only be implemented by people, and so the final strand of the project will bring together in a multi-stakeholder dialogue process with key actors and decision-makers from across the EU to form the One Planet Economy Network (OPEN). Using evidence generated by the EUREAPA model, the core question for this the Network will be “How can we become a One Planet Economy in Europe by 2050?” It is hoped that in its own modest way this network and its outputs could lead to the first action plan for a transition to a One Planet Europe.
How to get involved
The project partners are inviting organisations with shared goals to participate in the project so as to strengthen the One Planet Economy concept and hasten our transition to a more sustainable world.
To register your interest and get involved in this groundbreaking project please visit the OPEN website at www.oneplaneteconomynetwork.org
Or contact Rachel Brown: [email protected]
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