Providing for the well-being of a still growing world population within the limits of a finite planet is the key challenge for our future.

Many people still need more natural resources - just to meet basic needs. Yet, nature’s life support systems are already overburdened. This ecological overshoot is deepening: soil erosion, deforestation, species extinction, CO2 accumulation in the atmosphere and extreme weather events, stressed freshwater sources, fossil fuel constraints, destruction of the ozone layer and failing fisheries. They are all measurable effects of liquidating rather than stewarding natural capital.

If we want to maintain - and in many places improve - human well-being, society will have to learn to live on fewer resources, for example by reducing demand or by using resources much more efficiently.

Any resources we use will end up as waste, causing environmental problems such as climate change, air and water pollution, and the destruction of biodiversity. This is, however, not only an environmental concern: the overuse of resources is also a problem for economic stability, international security, social equity, international cooperation, and peaceful coexistence.

In the Lisbon Strategy and the renewed Sustainable Development Strategy, the European Union recognized that using resources more efficiently is crucial for the economic development of the EU, for the European environment, and for a positive role of the EU in the world.

Making the EU the most energy and resource efficient region in the world will drive forward innovation, create jobs, increase competitiveness and improve the state of the environment, as the President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso pointed out in a discussion with environmental organizations.

There will be no sustainable development in the EU without reducing human demand on natural resources through enhanced resource efficiency. Progress in industrialized countries therefore needs to be measured against the ability to increase resource productivity and decrease the demand of natural resources. To monitor if we are moving in the right direction, we need indicators of resource consumption and productivity. Such indicators depend on careful tracking of resource uptake by, stocks within and flows through our economies. As prices are unable to provide the necessary information, these indicators must be based on physical units. Physical accounts are a fundamental prerequisite for Europe to evaluate and manage the process to become the most resource and energy efficient region in the world - a region that maintains, rather than liquidates, natural capital.

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Strengthen material flow accounting - vital for sustainability policy, research and communication