UNEP Globale MFA Datenbank - Assessmen...

Political programs on the increase of resource productivity were published recently (EU flagship initiative on a resource efficient Europe, Austrian Resource Efficiency Action Plan (REAP), UNEP Decoupling Report, etc.) that require global MFA data as the empirical ground for monitoring and analysis. These MFA database should provide internationally harmonized data based on latest state of the art methods. Such a database will be used intensively by political representatives, NGOs, scientific institutions, but also business.
In 2012, a project was launched under the auspice and partly financing of the UNEP which integrates and harmonizes existing global MFA data of the institutions most relevant in MFA research. The global MFA database will be published as an official database of the UNEP. Together with the publication of the MFA database, an Assessment Report will be published.
The compilation of the MFA database is organized and lead by Heinz Schandl (CSIRO) and Marina Fischer-Kowalski (Institute of Social Ecology) and in cooperation between the Institute of Social Ecology, the CSIRO, the WU, and the IFEU as well as further representatives of the UNEP Working Group.

• To establish an information base on the history and state of global material use for all major natural resources – biomass, fossil fuels, metal ores and industrial and construction minerals – with a particular level of detail for specific materials and a set of high level indicators for policy planning and policy evaluation.

• To institutionalize the global material flow and resource productivity accounts under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), to ensure regular updates and reporting on global trends for natural resource use.