Responsible use of resources practice questions.

The EU Critical Raw Materials Act, in force since May 2024, states that by 2030 no more than 65 per cent of the Union's annual consumption of any strategic raw material should come from a single third country. Which risk is that ceiling aimed at?

• The higher emissions caused by shipping ores over long distances to Europe
• The weaker environmental standards that apply at mine sites outside Europe
• The mismatch between the volume mined worldwide and the volume refined
• One supplier being able to restrict exports and halt European production

Answer: One supplier being able to restrict exports and halt European production

A share ceiling is a supply-security instrument aimed at concentration: a state that controls most of the refining capacity for a material can use export licensing as leverage. Environmental conditions at mines are a real concern but are addressed by due diligence rules, not by a country quota.

Between 2015 and 2020 the computing work done in data centres grew several times over while their global electricity use rose only slightly, and it has climbed faster since. Analysts describe part of the later rise as a rebound effect. What does that term claim is happening?

• Cheaper computing per unit is answered by buying much more computing
• Cooling equipment loses efficiency as average outdoor temperatures rise
• Older sites are being retired more slowly than new sites are being built
• Electricity prices fall as more renewable generating capacity is connected

Answer: Cheaper computing per unit is answered by buying much more computing

The rebound effect is an economic mechanism rather than a technical failure: efficiency lowers the cost of a unit of service and demand expands to fill the saving. It is why an efficiency target and an absolute consumption target are different commitments, and why only the second bounds resource use.

A data centre in a water-stressed region replaces evaporative cooling with a closed-loop system that consumes almost no water but raises the site's electricity use by roughly a tenth. Which judgement about the change is best supported?

• The site's environmental reporting improves although nothing physical changes
• Local pollution is exported to the country where the servers were manufactured
• One contested local resource is spared by drawing more of another shared one
• The change lowers both the water demand and the electricity demand of the site

Answer: One contested local resource is spared by drawing more of another shared one

Cooling design trades water against electricity, and which trade is defensible depends on which resource is scarce locally and on who else is competing for it. Describing the switch simply as greener hides the second demand it creates on a grid that other users share.

Since 20 June 2025 smartphones and tablets sold in the European Union must come with spare parts for at least seven years after the model leaves the market, and with operating system updates for at least five years. Which resource argument supports the update requirement specifically?

• Working devices are discarded once security updates stop arriving
• Updated software allows a manufacturer to use less cobalt in a battery
• Distributing a security fix costs a manufacturer less than storing spare parts
• Older operating systems draw measurably more electricity while charging

Answer: Working devices are discarded once security updates stop arriving

Handsets are often retired for software reasons while the hardware still works, so an update guarantee extends a working life that spare parts alone cannot reach. The resource saved is the material and energy embodied in the replacement device, which for a smartphone outweighs the energy it uses in service.

The EU Batteries Regulation, in force since August 2023, will require portable batteries in appliances sold in the Union to be removable and replaceable by the user. A manufacturer sells the same handset model in the Union and in several other markets. Which limit of the requirement does this show?

• It applies only to batteries that are manufactured within the Union's own territory.
• It removes the manufacturer's duty to supply replacement batteries as spare parts.
• It binds what is placed on the Union market, not sales in other countries.
• It requires the user to be able to remove the battery without using any tool.

Answer: It binds what is placed on the Union market, not sales in other countries.

Product rules bind the market on which a product is placed, so a design change can stop at the border unless the manufacturer finds one design cheaper than two. Whether the rule spreads beyond the Union is an empirical question, not something the text guarantees.

A national agency reports a 78 per cent recycling rate for electrical equipment. The figure is the mass of equipment delivered to treatment plants divided by the mass placed on the market three years earlier. A student concludes that 78 per cent of the material in those products returned to production. Which feature of the measure makes that conclusion unsafe?

• Equipment placed on the market is counted in units, and units cannot be converted to mass.
• Recycling rates are defined only for packaging waste and not for electrical equipment.
• Three years is too short a period for any electrical product to be discarded.
• The mass entering a plant is counted, not the material leaving it as usable output.

Answer: The mass entering a plant is counted, not the material leaving it as usable output.

A rate measured at the gate of a plant counts arrivals, and every process loses material to residues, dust and mixed fractions before anything reaches a smelter. Reading a collection or input figure as a recovery figure overstates circularity at every step.