Natural resources are finite and their extractions and uses are often associated with environmental impacts. Thus, over the next decades, significant and lasting increases in resource efficiency are required. Therefore, the German National Sustainability Strategy already pursues a doubling of resource productivity from 1994 to 2020. In order to achieve this goal, the German government also already adopted a national programme on resource efficiency (ProgRess). Within this setting, the PolRess project contributes scientific analyses and refinements of the currently emerging political and societal debates on resource efficiency topics.
The PolRess consortium merges the expertise of seven national research institutions in order to analyse the ongoing debate on objectives and indicators systematically and to elaborate on different options for selection, operationalisation and prioritisation of objectives of resource policy. Furthermore, qualitative scenarios are developed and quantitative model simulations are executed.
Within this consortium, GWS continuously monitors ongoing methodological developments in the research efficiency community and conducts quantitative impact assessments for selected policy mixes.