The International Panel for Sustainable Resource Management (short: Resource Panel), set up by the United Nations Environment Programme, is focusing on biofuels, metals, decoupling, and prioritization.

A Panel Report on Biofuels, coordinated by Dr. Stefan Bringezu of the Wuppertal Institute, is under preparation and should be published this Summer.

The Working Group on international metal flows is coordinated by Professor Thomas Graedel of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

The Working Group on decoupling economic wellbeing from resource consumption and environmental impacts, which I am coordinating, may publish its report in time for the World Resources Forum in Davos, Switzerland, 16 September, 2009.

Another Working Group on “Prioritization” (meaning to identify the most urgent fields of action) has just agreed on its Term of Reference; its coordinator is Professor Edgar Hertwich from Norway.

A fifth Working Group under the guidance of the Panel’s Co-Chair, Dr. Ismail Serageldin, Egypt, is likely to be established at the Panel’s next plenary meeting in Paris, first week of June, 2009. I am co-chairing the Panel with Dr. Serageldin.