This document discusses progress towards achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of sustainable production and consumption (SDG 12) in Europe. It notes that while Eurostat's report on SDG indicators provides a useful overview, it has some limitations such as not accounting for Europe's total environmental footprint abroad. To better measure progress, the document recommends using indicators that capture indirect impacts through trade, assessing progress towards absolute decoupling targets based on planetary boundaries, and ensuring the EU's support to developing countries is adequate and effective for achieving global SDG targets.

1. www.ieep.eu @IEEP_eu
Measuring progress on Europe’s SDGs
implementation: A view from IEEP
Céline Charveriat
EESC meeting
November 29th, 2017

2. www.ieep.eu @IEEP_eu
Value Limitations
• Welcome tool to inform debates on SDG
implementation
• Providing basis for a potential EU submission in
2019
• Worthwhile attempt at “making sense of it all” while
not hiding complexity
• Annual endeavour with the possibility of updating
indicators overtime
‒ Data gaps
‒ No gap analysis based on analysis of planetary
boundaries (instead using existing EU targets or
trend analysis)
‒ Underestimating spill over effects of European
policies and consumption patterns e.g. exports of
weapons
‒ Not based on fair shares: Carbon budget (per
capita, CBDRC)
‒ Too much emphasis on short-term trends? Vs.
2030 and 2050
‒ Not sufficient to establish priorities among SDGs
(thematic or among MS or for external policies)
‒ Hard to establish causality between policies and
trends (economic crisis, additionality)
‒ Difficult to compare with countries outside of the
EU (given choice of indicators)

3. www.ieep.eu @IEEP_eu
• Eurostat report • EU SDG Dashboard
SDG 12: Is Europe on track?
Legend:
Indicators:
• E-waste (kg/capita)
• Municipal solid waste (kg/person/year)
• Net imported emissions of reactive nitrogen
(kg/capita)
• Net imported SO2 emissions (kg/capita)
• Nitrogen production footprint (kg/capita)
• Non-recycled municipal solid waste
(kg/person/year)
• Production-based SO2 emissions (kg/capita)
• Wastewater treated (%)
Major challenge
Achievement
Significant challenge
Source: presentation by Guido-Schmidt-Traub (SDSN) at EESC on September 25, 2017, based on a
methodology applied to the EU

4. www.ieep.eu @IEEP_eu
Why such different outcomes?
• Indicators
 With greater emphasis on
accounting of Europe’s total footprint
• Methodology to assess progress:
 distance to absolute targets (based
on planetary boundaries and best
practices) vs. trends
description Best value
E-waste (kg/capita) 0.2
Wastewater treated 100%
Production-based sulphur dioxide (SO2)
emissions (kg/capita)
0.5
Net imported sulphur dioxide (SO2)
emissions (kg/capita)
0
Nitrogen production footprint (kg/capita) 2.3
Net imported emissions of reactive nitrogen
(kg/capita)
0
Non-recycled municipal solid waste
(kg/person/year)
0.8
Municipal solid waste (kg/person/year) 0.1

5. www.ieep.eu @IEEP_eu
Is decoupling real in the EU?
Domestic material consumption= Domestic Extraction Used +
IMP – EXP
i.e. the amount of materials directly used by an economy
including the annual quantity of raw materials extracted from
the domestic territory, plus all physical imports minus all
physical exports.
Sources: EEA, Wiedmann et al. 2015
Material footprint (MF) = Domestic Extraction Used + (IMP +
IFimp) – (EXP +IFexp)
Indirect flows of imports Indirect flows of exports
i.e. MF does account for the ‘hidden flows’ of raw materials embodied
in the production of traded goods. e.g. all the raw materials that were
needed to produce the good which is imported, e.g. cell phones.
Imports of electric and electronic products accounted for 75% of EU
consumption of these goods in 2012. Why? Changing structure of the economy with a move towards
services and greater dependence on imports for final consumption of
goods requiring high levels of raw materials for their production

6. www.ieep.eu @IEEP_eu
Global perspectives
• Sobering picture
‒ No evidence of decoupling while global
economic output is projected to triple
between 2010 and 2050.
‒ Domestic material consumption (DMC)
increased from 1.2 kg to 1.3 kg per unit of
GDP from 2000 to 2010.
‒ Unprecedented amount of 70 bn t of raw
material extraction (2008).
‒ Per capita levels of resource consumption at
their highest level in history.
‒ Material Footprint of major economies is
closely correlated with affluence (rather than
availability of materials or population
density).
• Is EU’s support to developing countries
adequate?
‒ Insufficient focus on global dimensions of
the circular economy within current
legislative discussions
‒ Little focus for far in EU’s development and
cooperation strategy on the circular
economy and SDG12 (e.g. only 0.3% of
global ODA goes to waste management)
(Tearfund)
Sources: UN; EEA; Wiedmann, 2015; Tearfund

7. www.ieep.eu @IEEP_eu
How could Eurostat’s report be complemented?
• Measuring progress
‒ Improved domestic indicators (e.g. using
Material Footprint (MF), designing
indicators for absolute decoupling within
limits or using critical thresholds)
‒ Better methodologies to assess Europe’s
contribution to global targets beyond its
borders (incl. adequacy and effectiveness
of the support to developing countries)
‒ Two upcoming opportunities: choice of
indicator within circular economy package;
2018 in-depth review of SDG12 @ the UN.
• Designing an evidence-based SDG
implementation strategy
‒ 2030 and 2050 EU targets based on
planetary boundaries and fair shares
‒ Gap analysis and back-casting: are we on
track and what it would take to get on track
and in time?
‒ Analysis needed at MS and non-state actors
level: What is happening? What is proving
effective?
‒ Potential costed pathways to guide MFF
and MS budgetary processes (e.g. Stern
report)

8. www.ieep.eu @IEEP_eu
References
UN SDSN, SDG Index and Dashboards Report, Global Responsibilities, International spillovers in achieving the
goals, 2017, available at: http://www.sdgindex.org/assets/files/2017/2017-SDG-Index-and-Dashboards-Report--
full.pdf
Wiedmann and all, “The material footprint of nations”, PNAS, Vol.112, n.20, 2015.
Fedrigo-Fazio and all, “Evidence of Absolute Decoupling from Real World Policy Mixes in Europe”,
Sustainability, 8, 517, 2016.
IEEP, “Critical Thresholds, Evaluation and Regional Development”, European Environment, vol. 18, 2008.
UN, https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg12
EEA, https://www.eea.europa.eu/soer-2015/europe/consumption
Eurostat, http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/File:Material_flow_indicators_derived_from_EW-
MFA_and_MFA_in_RME,_EU-28,_2015.png
Tearfund, St Paul’s institute, Going full circle, Tackling resource reduction and inequality, 2017, available at:
http://learn.tearfund.org/~/media/files/tilz/circular_economy/2017-tearfund-going-full-circle-en.pdf?la=en