On the 3rd December, Friends of the Earth Europe will be holding a conference discussing the causes of, and solutions too, Europe’s excessive land footprint. The half-day conference, ‘Resource Efficiency in Europe: reducing Europe’s land dependency and its impacts’, taking place in the conference hall of The Press Club, Rue Froissart 95, Brussels, will discuss the latest policy developments and environmental, social and economic benefits of moving to a resource efficient future.
Europe’s land footprint is one of the largest in the world. Europeans consume an area of land equivalent to 1.5 times the size of the continent. This is due to the massive imports needed to meet the population’s consumption levels. Imported goods such as meat, dairy, biofuels and forestry products require large amounts of land beyond Europe’s borders. Europe’s high levels of land consumption drive land-grabs, push up food prices and exacerbate social inequalities, with devastating social and environmental impacts.
As the EU recognises the urgent need to change the way we use resources, Friends of the Earth Europe and Judith Merkies MEP are inviting those interested to discuss Europe’s land use and the European Commission’s plans to set resource reduction targets by 2013.
Speakers at the conference will include:
- Karl Falkenberg – Director-general, DG environment
- Martin Bruckner – Research fellow, Sustainable Europe Research Institute
- Philipp Schepelmann – Project manager, material flows and resource management, Wuppertal Institute
- Ruth Kelly – Economic policy advisor, Oxfam UK
You can see the full agenda here, and if you plan to attend please register here.
If you have any further questions please email becky.slater[at]foe.co.uk
