United Nations Environment Programme.. A call to rationalize resource consumption
In 2007, the United Nations Environment Program launched the “International Resources Team” to establish an interface that combines science and policy, with the goal of sustainable use of natural resources and warning of the repercussions of their misuse, especially with regard to environmental impact. The team includes leading scientists with expertise in resource management issues.
The mission of the “team” is to examine key questions about the use of global resources, to produce assessments that extract the latest scientific, technical, social and economic findings to guide the decision-making process.
During the sixth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (which was held from 26 February to 1 March 2024 at UNEP headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya), the International Resources Group launched its report entitled: “Global Resources 2024: Bend the Trend… Pathways to a Livable Planet in Resource Use Booms,” with the participation of researchers from around the world. The report calls for comprehensive policy changes to curb the expected growth in global resource use while at the same time achieving economic development, improving well-being, and reducing environmental impacts.
The report, issued on March 1, clearly indicates that the world is going through a triple planetary crisis of climate change, loss of biodiversity, pollution and waste, because the global economy is consuming more natural resources, while the world is not on track to achieve development goals. Sustainable.
Rich countries use six times more resources than low-income countries, and produce 10 times more climate impacts than those countries produce. The report warns that this increase in natural resource consumption rates far exceeds human needs and nature's capabilities.
The report drew attention to the fact that the extraction of natural resources from the Earth has tripled in the past five decades, due to the massive buildup of infrastructure in many parts of the world and high levels of material consumption, especially in middle-income countries. Material extraction is expected to rise by 60 percent. percent by 2060, which risks hampering efforts to achieve not only global climate, biodiversity and pollution goals but also economic prosperity and human well-being.
The report concludes that resource use has grown from 1970 to now from 30 to 106 billion tons, or from 23 to 39 kilograms of materials used on average per person per day, as part of a boom that has enormous environmental impacts. Overall, resource extraction and processing account for more than 60 percent of global warming emissions and 40 percent of the health impacts of air pollution.
“The triple global crisis of climate change, nature loss and pollution is caused by a crisis of unsustainable consumption and production,” said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme.
We must work with nature, rather than just exploit it, and reducing the resource intensity of mobility, housing, food and energy systems is the only way we can achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and ultimately preserve a just and livable planet for all.” Fundamental inequalities lie at the heart of global resource use: low-income countries consume six times less materials and generate ten times less climate impacts than those in high-income countries. Resource use in upper middle-income countries has doubled in the past 50 years due to their expansion of infrastructure and the transfer of resource-intensive operations from high-income countries. At the same time, per capita resource use and related environmental impacts in low-income countries have remained relatively low and virtually unchanged since 1995.
“We should not accept that meeting human needs must be resource-intensive, and we should stop incentivizing economic success based on the extraction of primary resources,” said Janez Potocnik, co-chair of the International Resources Commission.
“With decisive action by politicians and the private sector, it will be possible to provide a decent life for all without costing the planet too much.” The report concludes that when it is necessary to use resources to achieve growth, strategies must be developed to maximize the gains from the use of each unit, and to meet human needs in ways that are not resource-intensive, so that the benefits of using resources far exceed the rate of extraction, and at the same time Environmental and health impacts remain consistent with international commitments on climate, biodiversity and sustainability. The report issued by the International Resources Team of the United Nations Environment Program indicated that COP28 approved in December last year the transition away from fossil fuels. The report confirms that the time has come to bring everyone to the negotiating table to develop solutions in stages to make this possible. .
“It is time to advance resource-based solutions to climate, biodiversity and equity so that everyone, everywhere, can live in dignity,” said Isabella Teixeira, co-chair of the International Resources Commission. The report warns that if urgent and concerted action is not taken to reduce global consumption and production, natural resource extraction could rise by 60 percent above 2020 levels, leading to increased climate damage and risks to biodiversity and human health.
The Global Waste Management Outlook for 2024 showed that without a seismic shift away from “extractive, industrial and waste-producing” societies towards a circular economy and zero-waste approach, the world’s waste pile could grow by two-thirds by 2050, and its cost to health, economies and the environment would double.
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