GS Paper III

News Excerpt:

Launched at the sixth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly(UNEA), Global Resources Outlook sheds light on how resources are essential to the effective implementation of the Agenda 2030 and to tackle the triple planetary crisis.

About the report:

• Global Resources Outlook is a flagship report of the International Resource Panel of UNEP.
  • The first edition of the Global Resources Outlook was launched in 2019 at the UN Environment Assembly-4.
• The theme of the 2024 report: ‘Bend the trend: Pathways to a Liveable Planet as Resource Use Spikes.’

• The report looks at the state, impact 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, biodiversity loss and pollution & waste while offering pathways to maintain economic growth and reduce inequalities, as well as negative environmental impacts.

Key findings of the Report:

• Global production and consumption of material resources have grown more than three times over the last 50 years.

• • The consumption and use of resources are largely driven by demand in upper-income countries. 
    • The report also reveals that upper-middle-income countries have joined the wanton consumption (excessive consumption of resources, products, and services) bandwagon and have more than doubled resource use in the past 50 years to support their growth in infrastructure.
  • The extraction and processing of material resources — including fossil fuels, minerals, non-metallic minerals and biomass — accounts for over 55% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and 40% of particulate matter  (PM) poisoning the environment.
  • The extraction and processing of fossil fuels, metals and non-metallic minerals including sand, gravel and clay account for 35% of global emissions.

• The extraction and processing of agricultural crops and forestry products accounts for 90% of land-related biodiversity loss and water stress and a third of GHG emissions.
• The resource exploitation could increase by almost 60% from 2020 levels by 2060.
• This will far exceed what is required to meet essential human needs.
• The report 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.

Way forward:

• The current extraction and consumption of resources is not only wasteful but also unjust. The global economy is consuming ever more natural resources, while the world is not on track to meet the Sustainable Development Goals. 
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.