From scarcity to security: a rationale for resources in LCA Lucia Mancini, Serenella Sala and David Pennington 1 European Commission DG Joint Research Centre Sustainability Assessment Unit, Via Enrico Fermi 2749 I-21027 Ispra/Italy Speaker: Lucia Mancini Corresponding author: Lucia Mancini, lucia.mancini@jrc.ec.europe.eu Abstract In order to tackle the challenges related to natural resources, the European Union has launched the flagship initiative “Resource Efficient Europe”, which aims at reducing use of resources and improving the efficiency of their use. Other policy initiatives have been started to ensure the access to resources over time. Environmental impacts associated with resource extraction and use should be evaluated through integrated assessment. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a well-established methodology for assessing the impacts of goods along the supply chains. In the context of LCA, however, there are several impact assessment methods, so far limited to assessing the depletion potential. Based on the results of an expert workshop and other research activities carried out in the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, this paper provides a theoretical rationale for the development of a comprehensive impact assessment of resources. Keywords: Natural resources, Life Cycle Assessment, Critical Raw Materials, Impact assessment, resource depletion 1 Introduction: EU policy background on natural resources Availability of natural resources and access to them are two fundamental conditions for the well-being of human societies. In the last decades global resource extraction and consumption has drastically increased, as well as prices of many commodities and raw materials. In order to tackle the challenges related to natural resources the European policy has included in its growth strategy for the coming decade the Flagship Initiative “Resource Efficient Europe” (EC - European Commission, 2011a). It addresses all the types of natural resources (minerals and metals, water, air, land and soil, marine resources) and aims at reducing use of resources and improving the efficiency of their use in all the key economic sectors. The access to resources and the security of supply of raw materials has also become a high- priority theme in the political agenda of EU. The Raw Material Initiative (EC - European Commission, 2008) and the more recent communication “Tackling the challenges in commodity markets and on raw materials“ (EC - European Commission, 2011b) have been launched in order to ensure the access to resources and avoid supply shortages, which would reflect on loss of competitiveness. In order to prioritize the policy initiatives in the field of resource security, the EC identified the materials facing the highest supply risk with respect to the whole economy. 14 Critical Raw Materials (CRM) deserving better monitoring and further potential policy actions (EC - European Commission, 2010a) have been listed. Fig. 1 provides an overview of the EU policies on natural resources, depicting the resource types that are addressed. The Resource Efficiency Initiative takes into account all kinds of resources, and includes a specific communication on Bioeconomy (EC - European Commission, 2012), thus focusing on renewable biological resources. the Flagship Initiative