On December 2, 10.00 – 11.30am CET, the World Resources Forum and University of South Australia will co-host the free webinar ‘Sufficiency Policies: a key enabler for sustainable and fair resource use?‘, diving into key questions around the concept of sufficiency and its practical implementation with international experts from Thailand, France, Australia and Portugal.

Sufficient and responsible use of natural resources, including restraining demand, is increasingly seen as a key enabler for sustainable resource use and for fair Global North-South relations in the global green transition. 

The need for sufficiency measures and practices was given increased emphasis in the latest IPCC report, “to avoid demand for energy, materials, land and water while delivering human wellbeing for all within planetary boundaries”. The report called for “aggressive and immediate mitigation policies with rapid and deep changes in demand”. Without sufficiency, it has been argued, global warming cannot be contained. 

Sufficiency has been understood in manifold ways, including a negative connotation associated with decrease in standards of living. However, quite the opposite might be true. Looking at the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution, sufficiency might become a powerful driver for innovative and equitable ways to deliver service needs and wellbeing for all, while consuming natural resources within planetary boundaries. If sufficiency is to play this transformative role, however, it requires a common understanding of the concept and how it can be realized in policies and industry practices. 

On the occasion of the 10th Anniversary of the World Resources Forum, it is timely to host such a discussion, with a link to the visionary principles of WRF Honorary President, Friedrich Schmidt-Bleek, who argued for a factor 10 dematerialization in high-income countries and for drastically reducing the resource intensity of current economic systems. 

The webinar will host a keynote presentation by Dr. Yamina Saheb (IPCC Lead Author) and a panel debate with Dr. David Ness (Adjunct Professor, University of South Australia), Valérie Quiniou (Head of Foresight, ADEME – French Ecological Transition Agency), Dr. Priyanut Dharmapiya (Senior Advisor, Sustainable Development and Sufficiency Economy Studies Centre Thailand) and Dr. Inês dos Santos Costa (Associate Partner, Deloitte).

Key questions to be touched upon during the webinar include:

• What is sufficiency? And what is not?
• How do the conceptualisations of ‘sufficiency’ differ across ‘Global North’ and ‘Global South’, and East and West?
• What kind of innovation can sufficiency requirements and principles give rise to, looking at policy, business and practice?
• What is the relationship of sufficiency to circular economy, efficiency, and resilience? How does it differ?
• How can sufficiency policies be applied in key sectors as energy, built environment and urban planning?
• How can sufficiency be measured? What are the metrics?
• What concrete examples can we highlight as source of best practice and inspiration?

The webinar is free to attend, but registration is mandatory.

Register here