The UNEP 4th Global Environment Outlook (GEO-4) report was launched in London last week to mark 20 years since the seminal report Our Common Future produced in 1987 by the World Commission on Environment and Development.
Population and Sustainability Network supports one of the report’s principal conclusions that places population growth very much at the core of sustainable development and environmental protection.
“Population and economic growth are major factors fuelling increased demand on resources, and contributing to global environmental change in terms of the atmosphere, land, water and biodiversity.”
The UN has declared population increase as a major driver of change in atmospheric composition and global warming. Coupled with income growth and global liberalisation of trade, the increases in energy and transport demands associated with higher human numbers are important catalysts in stratospheric damage, climate change and air pollution. Ultimately the drivers for atmospheric environment impacts is population growth but also the changing form of human activity, such as increased GDP and increases in production and consumption. These factors are important as drivers of anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases, which are central to climate change.
Population growth and increased consumption are also central factors damaging biodiversity. More people on the planet will lead to an increased demand for energy and ecosystem services, which places enormous strains on natural resources. The report reveals that the inappropriate agricultural policies used to meet greater food requirements have emerged as the leading drivers affecting the loss of species and ecosystem. Whilst building upon this, The United Nations Environment Program highlights that current losses of biodiversity are seriously hindering future development efforts since much of the world’s rural poor rely heavily upon functioning ecosystems for livelihood security.
The report also places burgeoning human numbers at the forefront of land degradation processes through unsustainable land use. These have been identified as equal to climate change and loss of biodiversity as threats habitat, economy and society. It is anticipated that further population increases are likely to further contribute to over exploitation of land resources drastically affecting forest cover and composition, cropland and the growth of urban areas.
Whilst recognising this trend, PSN supports the claim that programmes to address population issues need to be closely related to other policies such as those for economic development, migration, maternal and reproductive health and gender equity and the empowerment of women (UN 1994).
