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The global economy is experiencing a modest pickup but it continues to stumble along with growth of around 3 per cent. Despite some signs of improvement, weak investment and trade flows keep weighing on the economic growth engine, while productivity and wage growth remain subdued. This uncertain global economic outlook is now also being influenced by a number of risks such as: a rise in protectionism, financial vulnerabilities and a disconnect between market valuations and the outlook for the real economy.Governments need to manage risks, enhance economic resilience and strengthen the environment to boost growth, with improvements in both productivity and inclusiveness. Focusing on policies that build structural elements into fiscal initiatives would reduce the burden on monetary policy in the advanced economies and help to boost trade, investment, productivity, and wages. It is, therefore, crucial to give priority to reforms and policies that promote growth, but not business as usual GDP growth. This time we must focus on a more inclusive type of growth, but we also need this growth to be sustainable. We have no alternative. The planet has given us a clear mandate. Growth from now on has to be green and focused on resource efficiency.We, therefore, need to pose a crucial question: How can policies for economic growth and environmental sustainability reinforce each other? Resource efficiency, achieved through prudent investments in R&D and innovation, is one thread that links these objectives. With links to 12 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), resource efficiency is central to the very concept of sustainable development. By reducing the volume of materials that are extracted, transported, processed, and disposed of each year, it can also represent a key tool in the fight against climate change. Resource efficiency, and the opportunities it creates, will lead to new jobs in secondary material manufacturing, in the services sector, and in the rapidly growing sharing economy. Realising these, however, will require targeted investment along with a reform of the rules of the game that often serve to favour traditional, resource intensive business models.RESOURCE EFFICIENCY: TANGIBLE BENEFITS TODAY WITH SUSTAINED PROSPERITY TOMORROWNatural resources represent the physical basis for economic growth. They are an essential input into the global economy; future economic and social development will be dependent on their continued supply. Land, water, and a variety of mineral based fertilisers are critical inputs in our food production system. Coal, oil, and natural gas, despite receiving a diminishing share of new energy investment, continue to dominate the energy mix in many countries. Iron transformed into steel is central to infrastructure development, bauxite transformed into aluminium to the transport sector, while the group of rare earth elements are vital inputs across a range of low carbon technologies. Resource efficiency is not a goal in and of itself. It is the economic, social, and environmental gains that could emerge from a more efficient use of the earth’s natural resources that are chiefly of interest. Generating sustained economic growth without increasing reliance on the planet’s finite stock of natural capital will be critical in ensuring that future generations enjoy a quality of life comparable to that in developed countries today. ANGEL GURRÍA, SECRETARY-GENERAL, OECDSUSTAINABLE GREEN GROWTH: THE IMPERATIVE OF RESOURCE EFFICIENCY“WITH LINKS TO 12 OF THE 17 SDGS, RESOURCE EFFICIENCY IS CENTRAL TO THE VERY CONCEPT OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT ”070 RESOURCE EFFICIENCY