Environmental damage in the planet is so dire that people’s health will be increasingly threatened unless urgent action is taken.
A report produced by 250 scientists and experts from more than 70 countries for the last five years and published Thursday, warns that millions of premature deaths by mid-century could occur if governments do not drastically scale up environmental protections.
The report, “Global Environment Outlook (GEO)”, launched during the just concluded United Nation Environment Assembly (UNEA) in Nairobi, also warns that pollutants in our freshwater systems would see anti-microbial resistance become the number one cause of death by 2050 and endocrine disruptors impact male and female fertility as well as child neurodevelopment.
Acting Executive Director of UN Environment programme Joyce Msuya said the report is an outlook for humanity and that the world is at crossroads if we all continue on our current path, which will lead to a bleak future for humankind.
“Do we pivot to a more sustainable development pathway? That is the choice our political leaders must make now. The science is clear. The health and prosperity of humanity is directly tied with the state of our environment,” said Msuya.
The report highlights the fact that the world has the science, technology and finance it needs to move towards a more sustainable development pathway, although sufficient support is still missing from the public, business and political leaders who are clinging to outdated production and development models.
Msuya noted that the projection of a future healthy planet with healthy people is based on a new way of thinking where the ‘grow now, clean up after’ model is changed to a near-zero-waste economy by 2050.
According to the Outlook, green investment of 2 per cent of countries’ GDP would deliver long-term growth as high as we presently projected, but with fewer impacts from climate change, water scarcity and loss of ecosystems.
The report advises adopting of less-meat intensive diets, and reducing food waste in both developed and developing countries, as this would reduce the need to increase food production by 50 per to feed the projected 9 to 10 billion people on the planet in 2050.
At present, 33 per cent of global edible food is wasted, and 56 per cent of waste happens in industrialised countries, the report states.
While urbanization is happening at an unprecedented level globally, the report says it could present an opportunity to increase citizens’ well-being, while decreasing their environmental footprint through improved governance, land-use planning and green infrastructure. Furthermore, strategic investment in rural areas would reduce pressure for people to migrate
Co-chairs of the GEO-6 process Joyeeta Gupta and Paul Ekins say that what is currently lacking is the political will to implement policies and technologies at a sufficient speed and scale.
They say policies and technologies already exist to fashion new development pathways that would avoid these risks and lead to health and prosperity for all people.
“The fourth United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi needs to be the occasion when policy makers face up to the challenges and grasp the opportunities of a much brighter future for humanity,” said scientists.
The scientists also note advancements in collecting environmental statistics, particularly geospatial data, and highlight there is huge potential for advancing knowledge using big data and stronger data collection collaborations between public and private partners.
At present, the world is not on track to meet the SDGs by 2030 or 2050. Urgent action is thus required now as any delay in climate action increases the cost of achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement, or reversing our progress and at some point, will make them impossible.
The sixth Global Environmental Outlook has been released while environmental ministers from around the world are in Nairobi to participate in the world’s highest-level environmental forum.
Negotiations at the Fourth UN Environment Assembly were expected to tackle critical issues such as stopping food waste, promoting the spread of electric mobility, and tackling the crisis of plastic pollution in our oceans, among many other pressing challenges.
The report further calls for action to curb the flow of the 8 million tons of plastic pollution going into oceans each year and while the issue has received increased attention in recent years, there was still no global agreement to tackle marine litter.
Policy interventions that address entire systems such as energy, food, and waste rather than individual issues, such as water pollution could be much more effective, according to the authors.
The climate mitigation actions for achieving the Paris Agreement targets would cost about US$ 22 trillion, but the combined health benefits from reduced air pollution could amount to an additional US$ 54 trillion.
By Wangari Ndirangu
