Recommended actions, especially in wealthy countries, include dietary changes (representative)
Paris:
Exploitation of the Earth’s natural resources could surge by 60% by 2060, jeopardizing climate goals and economic prosperity, the United Nations said on Friday, calling for major changes in energy, food, transport and housing.
Over the past half century, dramatic expansions in infrastructure, energy demand and consumer consumption, especially in wealthier countries, have driven global materials use, according to the Global Resources Outlook 2024 by the United Nations Environment Programme’s International Resources Group. tripled.
Desire for natural resources – everything from food to fossil fuels – continues to grow at an average rate of more than 2.3% per year, the report said.
People in rich countries drive most of the demand, using six times more materials and impacting the climate ten times as much as low-income countries, the analysis shows.
The report said that more than 60% of global warming emissions are caused by the extraction and processing of large quantities of resources, which also destroys ecosystems and harms human health.
Lead author Hans Bruyninckx said the current trajectory would lead to the world well exceeding the temperature limits set out in the 2015 Paris Agreement, where countries agreed to limit global warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius, and ideally 1.5 degrees Celsius.
“The increasing use of resources is having such an impact on the Earth system that it is unsustainable,” he told AFP, adding that unequal access to resources around the world was also “unsustainable”.
But he acknowledged that “turning the tables” will require natural resources, both to boost development in poorer countries and to provide the minerals and metals needed for the energy transition.
The report follows an agreement struck by countries at last year’s United Nations climate talks in Dubai to triple global renewable energy capacity within a decade and “move away” from polluting fossil fuels.
“Unprecedented scale and speed”
The report warns that without radical changes, the exploitation of Earth’s resources will continue, with computer models showing that by 2060, the amount of Earth’s resources extracted will increase by nearly 60% from 2020 levels, from 10 billion tons to 160 billion Ton.
“The only option is to stabilize and balance humanity’s relationship with nature,” the report said.
“Weak, one-sided, fragmented or slow policies will not work. This will only be possible with far-reaching, truly systemic shifts in energy, food, transport and the built environment at an unprecedented scale and speed.”
Policy changes focused on high-consuming countries could reduce expected growth in resource use by one-third, cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80% and improve health while still boosting economic growth, the report said.
Recommended actions, especially in wealthier countries, include changing dietary habits to reduce food waste and animal protein intake, making transport systems more efficient, and using recycled building materials to build denser housing.
In developing countries where more resources are needed to improve lives, the focus should be on maximizing benefits and minimizing environmental and health impacts, the report said.
The report also calls for the environmental costs of resource extraction to be factored into commodity prices and included in trade agreements.
“The economy is a human creation and it does not obey the laws of physics,” Bruninx said.
“We’re going in one direction, and we can use the same government capabilities to move it in a different direction.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
