Resource Security Action Plan

The Resource Security Action Plan is a broad document that details how the UK Government recognises resource security, provides a framework for business action to address resource risks and sets out high-level actions to build on the developing partnership between government and businesses to address resource concerns.

Having gotten crucial to businesses over the past decades, a variety of materials are deemed insecure or at risk, with a number of them being critical minerals such as lithium or rare earth metals. The Action Plan is both an analysis of the situation as of 2012 and a compilation of steps for future action. It is mainly focused on the economic mechanisms resulting from and underlying the supply of critical materials. It also includes examples and case-studies from the industry, such as a project to reclaim and recycle platinum, palladium and rhodium deposited by catalytic converters. 

Actions envisioned include: 

• Extending the Individual Producer Responsibility (IPR) to the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment System, to better manage the recycling and disposing of related materials; 
• Launching a critical resources dashboard to provide companies with the necessary information for decision-making; 
• And the creation of a consortium to foster cooperation between governments, industries and other institutions with regards to resources’ opportunities and risks, policy innovation and best practices.

Together, these actions are designed to contribute to better economic efficiency, more resilience to supply issues in the future, as well as strong reduction in pollution resulting from better management of resources and emissions.

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