Global Resources Outlook 2024, released on final day of assembly, reveals shocking statistics
David Cooper, acting executive secretary, Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity; Janez Potočnik, co-chair, IRP and lead author of the report and Susanna Mohamed Gonzalez, UNEA-6 deputy president and Colombia’s Minister for Environment, present the report at UNEA-6. Photo shared by @susanamuhamad / X Global production and consumption of material resources has grown more than three times over the last 50 years, growing at an average of more than 2.3 per cent a year, despite the increase being the main driver of the triple planetary crisis.
The consumption and use of resources is largely driven by demand in upper income countries. The extraction and processing of material resources — including fossil fuels, minerals, non-metallic minerals and biomass — accounts for over 55 per cent of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and 40 per cent of particulate matter poisoning the environment.
The extraction and processing of agricultural crops and forestry products accounts for 90 per cent of land-related biodiversity loss and water stress and a third of GHG emissions.
The extraction and processing of fossil fuels, metals and non-metallic minerals including sand, gravel and clay account for 35 per cent of global emissions.
Despite this, resource exploitation could increase by almost 60 per cent from 2020 levels by 2060 — from 100 to 160 billion tonnes.
This will far exceed what is required to meet essential human needs, a new report titled Global Resources Outlook 2024 - Bend the trend: Pathways to a Liveable Planet as Resource Use Spikes has found.
It reveals that upper middle-income countries have joined the wanton consumption bandwagon and have more than doubled resource use in the past 50 years for supporting their own growth in infrastructure.
The report finds that growth in resource use has risen since 1970 (30 billion tonnes) to 106 billion tonnes in 2020. On the other hand, per capita resource use and related environmental impacts in low-income countries has remained comparatively low and almost unchanged since 1995.
The document by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and International Resource Panel (IRP) presents a stark picture of global inequality, where low-income countries consume six times less materials compared to wealthy countries, despite generating 10 times less climate impacts.
The study was launched on March 1, 2024 on the final day of the Sixth United Nations Environmental Assembly (UNEA-6) at the UNEP headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya.
It urged resource efficiency, crafting support policies to reduce material resource use and dramatically reduce environmental impacts while improving well-being and boosting economic growth in the Global South, the main source of the resources.
A drastic reduction in the use of material resources could also help end inequalities in the world, besides offering environmental and climate benefits, said UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen.
“It would see GHG production cut by up to 80 per cent, make more equitable distribution of wealth possible while still ensuring GDP growth around the world,” she noted.
It was possible to decouple economic growth and prosperity from increased use of material wealth, said Susanna Mohamed Gonzalez, UNEA-6 deputy president and Colombia’s Minister for Environment. She added that it was regrettable the resource extraction was not marching with the quality of life in resource-rich countries of the developing world.
The current extraction and consumption of resources was not only wasteful, but was also unjust, according to Janez Potočnik, co-chair, IRP and lead author of the report.
The wealthiest people in the world were using more resources than they needed, while the poor were not consuming enough to meet their basic needs, he said. This, he noted, called for striking a balance where the poor could use slightly more of the materials, while the rich drastically reduced their consumption.
“This can also help the environmental well-being of everyone and raise the quality of life among poorer people. We also should start seeing a situation where decarbonisation and decoupling of material resources and economic growth begin to go hand-in-hand,” he stated.
Overall, the study recommends measures including creating circular, resource-efficient and low impact solutions and business models to include refuse, reduce, eco-design, reuse, repair and recycle, as well as supportive regulation and evaluation of existing systems, to stem consumption.
“The global economy is consuming ever more natural resources, while the world is not on track to meet the Sustainable Development Goals. Bold policy action is critical to phase out unsustainable activities, speed up responsible and innovative ways of meeting human needs and create conditions conducive to social acceptance and equity within the necessary transitions,” it appeals.
This would include urgent action to ‘embed’ resources in the delivery of multilateral environmental agreements, define sustainable resource use paths and roll out appropriate financial, trade and economic incentives.
The report looks at the state and impact of and outlook for resource use globally, including fossil fuels, lands, biomass, minerals, metals and water.
It brings together the best available data, modelling and assessments from 180 countries, seven world regions and four income groups, to analyse trends, impacts and distributional effects of resource use.
It exposes a crisis of excess that is driving the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature loss and pollution, while offering pathways to maintain economic growth and reduce inequalities, as well as negative environmental impacts.
“The science is clear: The key question is no longer whether a transformation towards global sustainable resource consumption and production is necessary, but how to make it happen now,” it reckons.
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