Tuesday, July 2, 2019

UNEP Previews Global Resources Outlook 2019 | News | SDG Knowledge Hub | IISD

The Global Resources Outlook 2019 analyzes the demographic and socioeconomic forces driving the extraction and use of natural resources globally, and reports on how these drivers and pressures have determined our current state.
The report assesses the environmental and well-being impacts, and considers the distribution and intensity of the environmental and human health impacts resulting from the changing state of our environment.

It concludes that decoupling of natural resource use and environmental impacts from economic activity and human well-being is an essential element in the transition to a sustainable future.

An average person living in a high-income country consumes over 13 times what is consumed by someone in a low-income country.

  • The use of natural resources has more than tripled from 1970, and continues to grow; 
  • Historical and current patterns of natural resource use are resulting in increasingly negative impacts on the environment and human health;
  • The use of natural resources and related benefits and environmental impacts are unevenly distributed across countries and regions;
  • In the absence of urgent and concerted action, rapid growth and inefficient use of natural resources will continue to create unsustainable pressures on the environment;
  • The decoupling of natural resource use and environmental impacts from economic activity and human well-being is an essential element in the transition to a sustainable future;
  • Achieving decoupling is possible and can deliver substantial social and environmental benefits, including repair of past environmental damage, while also supporting economic growth and human well-being;
  • Policymakers and decision makers have tools at their disposal to advance worthwhile change, including transformational change at local, national and global scales; and
  • International exchanges and cooperation can make important contributions to achieving systemic change.

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