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Priority offenders
The report "Environmental Impacts of Consumption and Production:
Priority Products and Materials", is the latest in a series from the
International Panel for Sustainable Resource Management. Using life-cycle
analyses, it catalogues the materials and energy required for production,
consumption and disposal, and identifies the processes, products and materials
most responsible for environmental harm around the globe. At the top of the
list are agricultural goods, particularly products from animals, which are fed
more than half of all world crops. Fossil fuel users are also under fire,
especially electrical utilities and other and energy-intensive industries,
residential heating, and transportation. Materials with the greatest impact
across their life cycle include plastics, iron, steel, and aluminium.
The Panel cites the following pressures on the environment as priorities for
reduction: climate change, habitat change, nitrogen and phosphorus pollution,
overexploitation of fisheries, forests and other resources, invasive species,
unsafe drinking water and sanitation, household combustion of solid fuels, lead
exposure, urban air pollution and occupational exposure to particulate
matter.
The perils of affluence
Worryingly, the Panel produces an array of evidence to show that prosperity
and humanity’s environmental impact grow in tandem, contrary to the popular
belief that greater wealth leads to a lighter environmental footprint.
The report indicates that while greater affluence can lead to relatively
simple process changes and devices to control local sources of conventional air
and water pollution, rising wealth also results in the growth of wider-scale
problems such as energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. Regarding CO2, “a
doubling of wealth leads typically to an increase of environmental pressure by
60 to 80 per cent, and in emerging economies this is sometimes even more,” the
report says.
Background: International Panel for Sustainable Resource
Management
The Resource Panel was set up to provide independent scientific insight into
the use of natural resources and their environmental impacts, in an effort to
decouple economic growth from environmental degradation. It draws on the views
of environmental experts from around the world. The Panel is co-chaired by IUCN
President Ashok Khosla and Professor Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, former
Chairman of the Bundestag Environment Committee.
Useful links: Full report available at: http://www.unep.org/resourcepanel/
For more information, please contact the London press office on 020 7973
1971.
Please note: all amounts expressed in sterling are for information purposes
only.
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