ST. GALLEN, Switzerland, Dec 15 (IPS) – As the COP28 presidency celebrated a “historic deal” to transition away from fossil fuels, we must remind ourselves that the future well-being of human societies on a livable planet depends on more than that .
The resounding consensus from the recent World Resources Forum Conference: to achieve well-being for all within planetary boundaries, humanity must rethink how it values resources.
Keeping fossil fuels in the ground is a necessary condition, but not sufficient. To achieve the ultimate goal, we must fundamentally rethink the value of natural resources and reassess their connection to long-term human well-being.
Having a world climate conference with tunnel vision on fossil fuels does not help us.
At stake is the ability of human societies to provide long-term well-being, especially in the face of a growing global population and rising inequality. In recent decades, resource use has significantly improved the living standards of many, especially in high-income countries, but this now comes at unprecedented costs to the environment and human health.
Today, according to the UN International Resource Panel, resource extraction and processing are responsible for 90% of biodiversity loss and water stress, 50% of carbon emissions and 1/3 of the health impacts of air pollution.
Resource use has more than tripled since 1970 and if current trends continue, global material consumption is expected to double again by 2060. This growth is particularly prominent for metals and non-metallic minerals, which are the backbone of major industries and enablers of the energy and digital transition.
The International Energy Agency predicts that global demand for critical raw materials will quadruple by 2040 – in the case of lithium, demand is expected to increase by a factor of 42.
Resources are the bridge between economic productivity and ecological balance. A bridge that has often remained invisible in most policy and governance frameworks. The main reason for this lies in an economic model that does not value natural resources.
Economists have seriously downplayed the dependence of economic activity on resources and the natural systems that generate them. This has contributed to overexploitation, environmental degradation and the exacerbation of global problems such as climate change and biodiversity loss.
Distorted economic incentives and market signals are now ubiquitous, as in the well-known cases of the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest or the depletion of fish stocks due to overfishing. Others are less discussed, especially in relation to the mining sector, which will become the engine of the global economy.
If not managed responsibly, mining activities can lead to soil erosion, habitat destruction and contamination of water sources, impacting local ecosystems and nearby communities that depend on those ecosystems.
A prominent example is the processing of mine tailings and tailings, the residue left after mineral processing. Recent research shows that a third of the world’s mine tailings facilities are located in or near protected areas, posing a significant threat to biodiversity and ecosystem integrity in the event of disruptions or accidents.
Unfortunately, these accidents are not as uncommon as you might think. The 2019 Brumadinho tailings storage facility disaster (Brazil) caused a toxic flood of approximately 12 million cubic meters, killing 270 people and destroying a significant part of the Atlantic Forest and a protected area downstream.
Economic models are man-made and can be changed. If we are serious about sustainability and long-term human well-being, they must be transformed to better reflect the irreplaceable value that natural resources provide.
This shift, advocated by participants at the World Resources Forum 2023, requires recognition of the interconnectedness of economic, environmental and social systems, supporting the need for new accounting models to integrate environmental and social indicators.
If future COPs are to play a meaningful role in sustaining life on this planet, profound changes must permeate climate negotiations and international policies. This year we have once again witnessed how discussions about climate change tend to overlook the central role of excessive and irresponsible resource use, and adopt a tunnel vision that focuses on CO2 emissions, which is an important aspect to address, but is essentially a symptom of a more profound illness.
The solution is to integrate natural resource management into the institutional fabric and expand relevant policy options beyond mainstream energy supply. Ecological health and human well-being are interrelated goals that require a reappraisal of our values and a rethink of the way we use natural resources.
Mathias Schluep is general manager of World Resources Forum
IPS ONE office
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© Inter Press Service (2023) — All rights reservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service
