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'Business as usual is dead': Global resource use smashes past 100 billion tonnes
Mining and commodities
Resource use appears to be rising rapidly
Only fraction of metals, minerals, fossil fuels, and biomass extracted each year is reused, tipping planet towards ecological disaster, report warns
The global economy is now consuming over 100 billion tonnes of materials each year, with rapidly increasing resource use tipping the planet towards an environmental and climate catastrophe, a worrying new analysis launched today at the World Economic Forum in Davos indicates.
The latest Circularity Gap Report estimates the world reused just 8.6 per cent of the 100.6 billion tonnes of minerals, fossil fuels, metals, and biomass which entered the global economy in 2017, laying bare a huge ongoing failure to curb resource use and build a more circular economy.
Resource use appears to be growing at an alarming rate, rising 8.4 per cent in two years from 92.8 billion tonnes in 2015, the first year for which the analysis was undertaken by Dutch think tank Circle Economy.
At the same time, the rate of reuse has grown by only three per cent from 8.4 to 8.65 billion tonnes, suggesting the world's growing capacity for reuse and recycling is struggling to keep pace with the growing mountain of new resources being extracted from the planet.
Circle Economy CEO Harald Friedl said the glbal economy risked 'disaster if we continue to treat the world's resources as if they are limitless'.
'Governments must urgently adopt circular economy solutions if we want to achieve a high quality of life for close to 10 billion people by mid-century without destabilising critical planetary processes,' he added.
Global use of materials has nearly quadrupled in the past half century, rising from 26.7 billion tonnes in 1970. The level of extraction is also forecast to rise to between 170 and 185 billion tonnes by 2050, as the planet continues to extract virgin materials rather than making better use of existing resources, Circle Economy said.
Meanwhile, the global population is also growing, heaping further pressure on the economy to meet citizens' needs.
Yet most products brought to market are still not designed to be reused and there are only limited facilities for recycling or reprocessing waste materials, the report explained.
The group is therefore calling on governments to establish national circular economy roadmaps, arguing more efficient reuse of resources can make economies more competitive, improve living conditions, and also help meet targets to reduce greenhouse emissions and deforestation.
The findings have won backing from a range of businesses, charities and NGOs, including WWF, electronics and lighting giant Philips, the UN Environment Programme's International Resource Panel, and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).
Peter Bakker, CEO of the WBCSD, said the report showed 'business as usual is dead'. 'We must commit to taking action at scale to make the circular economy reality,' he added. 'Measuring our individual and collective performance in the circular economy is fundamental in knowing whether we're decoupling resource consumption and financial performance at the rate which our planet is demanding of us.'
Potential actions suggested in the report include improving product design, better supporting repair work, and undertaking a rethink around the concept of ownership.
Cristianne Close, leader at WWF Markets Practice, said current economic and financial systems were 'driving unsustainable consumption and degrading the natural environment'.
'The circular economy provides a tangible framework for reducing our impacts, protecting ecosystems and living within the means of one planet,' she said.
Frans van Houten, CEO at Royal Philips, said countries, cities, and businesses needed to step up and act more collaboratively in order to accelerate circularity both locally and globally. 'But, governments and businesses alike must engage in far-reaching, cross-border collaborations for circular value chains and climate neutrality,' he said.
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| 21 January 2020 The text being discussed is available at | https://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/3085100/business-as-usual-is-dead-global-resource-use-smashes-past-100-billion-tonnes and |