A new report, put together by the International Panel for Sustainable Resource Management, indicates that legislators and policymakers looking to make the most impact on the Earth’s well-being should use taxes and other incentives to encourage more eco-friendly agricultural practices and reduce the use of fossil fuels.

The European Commission, together with the UN Environmental Programme, launched a major new report highlighting the need for a radical change in the way major economies are using scarce resources. The report provides science-based priorities for world environmental efforts, ranking products, materials and economic and lifestyle activities according to their environmental and resource impacts

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. 

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.