The world is spending 173% of its natural resource capacity

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-04-27 01:00

International

Three in four people across the world live in a low-income country spending more natural resources than it has, according to a US paper. Researchers analysed the biological capacity of a country compared to its footprint of consumption and found over 5.3 billion people lived in countries with a greater footprint than their resources in 2017. That group spent 96 per cent of the world's biocapacity. Over one billion people lived in high-income countries that were also spending more than they have at a combined total of 52 per cent of the world's biocapacity. Over one billion people lived in countries with more biocapacity than they used. Overall, the global population is overusing its natural resources at 173 per cent of the world's biocapacity.

Media release

From: Springer Nature

Sustainability: 72% of the world’s population lacks resource security

In 2017, 72% of people around the world lived in countries with both natural resource deficits and below world-average income, according to a study published in Nature Sustainability. These findings highlight the vulnerability of national economies exposed to natural resource constraints, and may explain how such countries end up in ecological poverty traps.

To maintain progress and eradicate poverty, countries need either sufficient natural resources within their country to match their ecological footprint, or money to competitively buy what they need on markets abroad. When neither of these two conditions are met, countries may end up in an ecological poverty trap — a situation in which the country’s natural resources are insufficient to provide enough food, fibres, building materials and CO2 sequestration, among other factors.

Mathis Wackernagel and colleagues compared and classified countries in four categories based on their gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and ecological deficit (the amount of biological resources they consume in excess of what their own ecosystems can renew) between 1980 and 2017, to analyse the exposure of national economies to resource constraints. The authors found that in 1980, 57% of the world’s population lived in a country experiencing a deficit in biological resources and below world-average income. However, in 1980 the worldwide ecological deficit was only 19%. In contrast, by 2017, 72% of the world’s population were exposed to both an ecological deficit and below-average income, and the global ecological deficit rose to 73%. They also found high- and low-income countries with an ecological deficit used 3.7 and 1.3 times more biological resources per capita than available per person worldwide in 2017, respectively.

The authors recommend that strategies to reshape resource demand should be developed, such as enhancing natural capacity and shifting consumption habits to prioritize wellbeing.

Attachments

Note: Not all attachments are visible to the general public. Research URLs will go live after the embargo ends.

Research Springer Nature, Web page

Journal/
conference: Nature Sustainability

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Global Footprint Network, USA

Funder: Projects leading up to this publication, including funding for the National Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts and applications to assessing international development, were funded by MAVA Foundation and Barr Foundation. This particular project did not have dedicated funding and was paid for by unrestricted income of Global Footprint Network. Extra support for preparing this publication was generously provided by Global Footprint Network’s present and former board members.

Media Contact/s

Contact details are only visible to registered journalists.