POTENTIAL FOR RARE EARTH ELEMENT RESOURCE EFFICIENCY IMPROVEMENTS IN PERMANENT MAGNET MOTORS THROUGH AN EXTENSION OF THE ELECTRIC MOTOR PRODUCT GROUP REGULATION UNDER THE EU ECODESIGN DIRECTIVE

It has been proposed that the EU Ecodesign Directive can promote resource efficiency through relevant ecodesign requirements. This paper examines the potential for rare earth element (REE) resource efficiency improvements in the event the current regulation for electric motors under the Ecodesign Directive is to be extended to comprise REE-based permanent magnet motors. The research is based on literature studies, questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with representatives from industry and academia. It is found that standards addressing the design and use phase could yield highest resource efficiency improvements of REE in permanent magnet motors. Highly ranked are stricter EU energy efficiency ratings and design for dismantling if and when recycling of REE was to be commercialized

Repair in the Circular Economy: Towards a National Swedish Strategy

Extending the lifetime of products is seen as a key objective for realising the vision of a Circular Economy. One way to increase the lifespan of products is to enable more repair activities. However, consumers encounter a variety of barriers for repairs, prompting public authorities in Europe and the US to adopt or propose policies in support of consumer repairs. Sweden has recently adopted a circular economy action plan, where increasing the number of consumer repairs is a stated objective. However, Sweden has so far only adopted a few repair policies, most notably through the tax reliefs for the repair sector that were implemented in 2017. The aim of this contribution is to research how Sweden could develop a more comprehensive policy mix for promoting consumer repairs, also by taking into consideration initiatives from other countries and regions. The research is based on a literature review and semi-structured interviews with policymakers and other relevant actors in Sweden, Europe and the US. The study shows that a lot of interesting initiatives aiming at increasing repairs are currently being proposed. The new requirements related to repairs, developed within the European Union’s (EU) Ecodesign Directive, have been positively received but the process is cumbersome and it will take time before their full effect becomes evident. Initiatives, such as the French repairability index and the French repair fund will create incentives for the producers to design more repairable products and make it easier for consumers to repair. On the same track, the Repair Network of Vienna with its repair vouchers makes repairs cheaper and more trustworthy. Also, the US policy proposals on right-to-repair laws would help to create an open market for repairs for a lot of products. Sweden has the possibility to gain knowledge through the implementation of similar policies, and by considering new policies suggested in literature and by the interviewees. Thus there is potential for Sweden to be a front-runner in creating a more resource efficient society through increased repair activity. Concluding, some preliminary proposals for a future policy mix are presented

Minimum energy performance standards for the 1.5 °C target: an effective complement to carbon pricing

Radical energy efficiency improvements are needed to keep global warming within 1.5 °C until the end of the century. Minimum energy performance standards (MEPS) are a widely applied policy instrument to improve the energy efficiency of appliances and reduce CO2 emissions, but they are criticized as redundant if an overarching carbon pricing scheme is in place. In order to better understand how MEPS could play a more effective role in reaching the 1.5 °C target, life cycle costs (LCC) for four home appliances were modelled considering a cost for emitting CO2. First, a significant social cost of carbon was introduced in a LCC optimisation model and it was found that a modest tightening of MEPS is sufficient to account for the climate externality. Second, more stringent MEPS were modelled and it was found that the switching prices needed to incentivize a shift up one or two efficiency classes were far higher than current carbon prices. These results have several implications for climate policy towards the 1.5 °C target. MEPS can easily internalize the climate externality and have the advantage over carbon pricing that policy makers can be certain that consumers actually move to more efficient appliances. While stringent MEPS do not appear to be economically efficient on the short-run, they are likely cost-effective in long-run 1.5 °C-consistent scenarios

Moving away from the throwaway society. Five policy instruments for extending the life of consumer durables

The majority of all environmental impacts can be linked to our consumption. As real wages increase, so does consumption levels – more holiday trips, more clothing purchases, faster replacement of products for newer versions,etc. This trend poses a threat to the state of our planet. While the Nordic countries are high in the overall rankings of achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, they stand outwith unsustainable levels of resource consumption and waste generation, this is an issue when it comes to Goal 12 – Sustainable consumption and production patterns. The environmental impact from consumption in high-income countries, like Sweden, primarily arise in other countries wheret he manufacturing of products typically takes place. This presents challenges for the fulfilment of Sweden’s generational goal, which emphasises that environmental problems in Sweden must be solved without increasing environmental impact outsideS weden

Politik och styrning för hållbar konsumtion. : En forskningsöversikt

The ongoing environmental crisis and the growing socio-economic disparities between different population groups are among the most significant challenges facing humanity. These problems are rooted in unsustainable consumption patterns, particularly in the more affluent societies worldwide. We, therefore, need to change existing consumption patterns, which is a considerable challenge. A sustainable level of consumption must respect planetary limits and be in line with climate change targets. In contrast, the consumption levels of the poorest parts of the world’s population needs to increase to allow their population to live a dignified life.The climate impact of Swedish consumption consists partly of the climate impact of activities in Sweden and partly of the climate impact of Swedish consumption that take place outside Sweden,for instance related to import of products. We see some reduction in consumption-based emissions, but not at a rate that will enable us to reach our climate targets. Sweden has introduced several progressive climate policies, but Swedish consumption has a very high environmental impact in other countries. This can partly be explained by our high purchasing power, the individualization of responsibility for consumption-related impacts, and the social context influencing our consumption behaviour. Research on sustainable consumption has long discussed the two main courses of action for achieving sustainable development. The first is weak sustainable consumption, which can be achieved mainly by changing consumption patterns through more eco-efficient/greener consumption and some shift towards the consumption of less environmentally damaging consumption categories.The second is strong sustainable consumption which, in addition, stresses the need for a reduction in consumption levels through sufficiency measures (see below). Strong sustainable consumption emphasizes the need for real net reductions in global material consumption.This report aims to provide a critical overview of the state of research on weak and strong sustainable consumption, with an emphasis on research on three different strategies to achieve more sustainable consumption patterns:• Consuming more efficiently - better/greener consumption - means consuming better alternatives of the same goods and services, for example eco-labelled, organic, energy-efficient, ethical, or locally produced goods.• Consuming differently - consumption shift - means a relative reduction in the impact of consumption due to switching to a less impactful category of goods and services, for example using public transport instead of driving or eating vegetables instead of meat.• Consuming less - sufficient consumption - means an absolute reduction in consumption levels of goods and services leading to an absolute reduction in environmental and social impacts, for example living in a smaller area, flying less often, reducing consumption of meat and purchase of clothes and driving less.The report also provides an overview of the research on environmental policy instruments for sustainable consumption. The methodology has mainly comprised of an integrative literature review. 9 (115) Politik och styrning för hållbar konsumtion Sustainable consumption policies have mainly aimed to make consumption greener/more efficient,for example correcting market failures through more information, enabling individuals to make more sustainable choices in the market, supporting eco-labeling schemes, and introducing consumption taxes. This is usually categorized as a weak sustainable consumption policy, as the policy does not question current consumption patterns but aims primarily to make them more sustainable. As a result, the policies have had a limited impact.Different consumption (“consumption shift”) strategies look at, among other things, changes insocio-economic systems, new business models, and new ways of consuming, such as sharing something instead of buying. Like ‘better consumption’, consumption shift fits within the existing economic system, but certain types of practices and business models can challenge the economy’s prevailing ‘linear’ flows. However, the shift towards different consumption/consumption systems is slow. These are often “niche” activities that find it challenging to impact the economy profoundly, at a larger scale. The overall conclusion is that current progress is too slow to prevent further deterioration of the global environment.Strategies related to greener and different consumption have limited capacity to achieve reductions in the environmental impacts of consumption. They can only provide some relative (not absolute)decoupling between economic growth and environmental impacts. There are several reasons for this. Crucial factors include rebound effects and other macroeconomic effects: a particular type of consumption may become less environmentally damaging, but efficiency gains free up consumption space, which is spent on new consumption activities. Furthermore, we can see how reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in some countries result from production shifting to other countries, with associated increases in greenhouse gas emissions there.This means that policies related to greener and different consumption may mitigate environmental impacts from consumption and environmental impacts, but they cannot deliver absolute decoupling. At best, they only buy us more time to find more effective policies. Current trends in greenhouse gas emissions, resource use and biodiversity loss mean that we urgently need new approaches.Consuming less (sufficiency/reduced consumption) is the strategy with the most significant potential to reduce the environmental impact of consumption. Reduction policies could include more radical measures such as emission quotas (for countries, regions, cities, households,individuals) that would require all economic activity to take place within the quotas. It could also involve banning certain types of consumption (for example short air travel), banning certain products (for example luxury goods like yachts), banning certain activities (for example oil exploration), banning activities that encourage more consumption (for example bonus points for air travel), or stopping certain production – with related effects on consumption (for example by creating marine reserves where fishing is not allowed). But policies aimed at reducing consumption question the current growth paradigm. This causes great concern among leading political elites. At the same time, several recent research reports have highlighted the need to reduce consumption levels and ban certain types of consumption. There are signs that the issue is also increasingly discussed in the political arena.The “reduce” approach has one essential difference compared to the “increase efficiency/change”approaches: it explicitly requires the consideration of equity perspectives. It is easier to ignore10 (115) Politik och styrning för hållbar konsumtion economic inequalities if one believes in economic growth that can “lift all boats”. On the other hand, if you say that the cake cannot grow, more attention will be paid to how it is distributed.That is why more and more research reports stress that the poorest people on the planet need to consume more, and that we need to reduce consumption levels among the wealthiest individuals.Regarding policy instruments for sustainable consumption, the report reviews existing and potential policy instruments in different consumption domains. Overall, existing instruments provide weak incentives for major consumption shifts, probably because habits, economic interests, etc., discourage the shift. More elaborate policy packages with stronger incentives are needed to accelerate the transition. Among potential - not yet implemented - policy instruments,we can conclude that those with a high potential to reduce the environmental impact of consumption, such as individual carbon quotas, are difficult to implement as they are complex in nature and likely to be unpopular among the public.The report also discusses the future research needs on governance for sustainable consumption.More research is needed in several research areas, such as how to design effective policy packages,how to increase the acceptability of policies that reduce consumption levels, behavioral research needs, policy experiments, and research on how to implement radical regulations for product supply systems and marketing, as well as research on rebound effects. We particularly need research that looks at sustainable consumption from a systems perspective, rather than research on individual practices or policies. We also need more research with critical elements, emphasizing the equity aspects of the necessary systemic transition. Finally, we need creative approaches to integrate different theories and methods to produce innovative research with policy relevance

Futures of Fixing : Exploring the life of product users in circular economy repair society scenarios

A Circular Economy (CE) constitutes one pathway towards realising sustainable productionand consumption. Here, the repair of broken products (compared to replacement) consti-tutes an important strategy to keep products in the economy for longer, thereby reducingwaste, as well as the need to extract resources and emit pollution in the manufacture of areplacement product. In today’s world, repair does not necessarily constitute the naturalresponse to product breakage. However, increasing legislative efforts and grassroots move-ments are attempting to change that and make repair accessible, affordable and culturallyacceptable. The question is what such a society – where repair is normalised – would be like