GEO-6 Regional Assessment for Asia and the Pacific


Figure 1.2.2: Asia and the Pacific, sub-regions and world, domestic material consumption, tonnes per person, 1970, 1990 and 2015


Australia and New Zealand


Northeast Asia South Asia


Southeast Asia The Pacific


Asia and the Pacific Rest of the World World


0 5 10 15 1970 Sources: CSIRO 2015; UNEP 2015 20 1990 25 Tonnes per person 2015 30 35 40 45


The main driver of accelerating domestic material consumption is the growth of consumption by the expanding middle class and, to a lesser extent, population growth.


The material intensity of many developing countries in the region has increased significantly over the past four decades (Figure 1.2.3). In 2015, on average, 1.35 kilograms of materials were needed globally to produce USD1 of economic output but 2.75 kilograms were required in Asia and the Pacific, just more than double the global average and four times the rest of the world average (Figure 1.2.4). The environmental impact has increased, in part due to the shift of economic activity from resource-efficient economies to less resource efficient economies.


Asia and the Pacific region is rich in rare earth metals (REMs), and consumption of REMs for high- tech applications is increasing rapidly, particularly for new and emerging clean-energy technologies.


REMs are a group of 17 chemical elements – 15 lanthanide elements (lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium and lutetium), yttrium and scandium. They are sometimes referred to as rare earth oxides because many of them are typically sold as oxide compounds (King 2015). Demand for REMs in the region and globally has grown rapidly in recent decades because of increasing applications in


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