overconsumption--2009

Recommendations

Info

Since international exchange requires goods to be transportedbetween the countries of extraction and productionto countries of consumption, growth in trade has significantlyincreased greenhouse gas emissions from transportactivities. Out of the total energy used in world transport,95% is still supplied by petroleum. Around a quarter ofglobal energy-related greenhouse gas emissions originatefrom transport activities (including transport that isn’ttrade related). 20 Trade also contributes to increased landrequirements for transport infrastructure, such as roads,harbours and airports.The structure of world trade. Current patterns of tradeare largely determined by the availability of resources indifferent world regions and the economic position ofcountries in the world system. 21Industrialised countries in Europe and North America, butalso in Asia, largely export manufactured products witha high value added. Many developing countries, on theother hand, continue to rely strongly on the export of rawmaterials such as agricultural products, minerals and fossilfuels (see Figure 6).Figure 6: What world regions export, 2006 (vi) Exporting manufactured products usually generates higherprofits compared to export of commodities. Furthermore,environmental pressures related to extraction and processingof resources are high (see Chapter 3). However, someresource exporting countries do gain significant incomefrom their exports, for example prices of many resourcesincreased sharply between 2003 and 2008. Examplesinclude the OPEC countries and Venezuela for oil exports, orChile and Australia for exports of metal ores.If managed with high environmental and social standardsand under effective local governance structures, exportsof natural resources can have positive impacts on regionaldevelopment in poorer countries, as the case study onexport of fair trade rice from Thailand illustrates.However, the massive growth of the global trade systemin the latter half of the 20th century has had significantimpacts on the way we use natural resources and posessome severe environmental and social threats.16 | OVERCONSUMPTION? Our use of the world’s natural resources
Trade reinforces inequalities in resource consumption.Global trade of natural resources allows countries andworld regions with high purchasing power to increase resourceconsumption beyond their own national resourcecapacities. In recent years, more and more countries havebecome net-importers of natural resources and productsand thus consume more than would be possible based ondomestic resources only. These countries run an “ecologicaltrade deficit”.It may not be regarded as problematic that countries withpoor natural endowments have net resource imports. However,the inequalities in resource use facilitated by thecurrent patterns of world trade raise concern as they mayjeopardise sustainable and equitable development in allworld regions.In order to ensure material welfare for all people, tradecould help redistribute resources from countries with a highextraction to countries with lower extraction. Currently,however, the opposite is in general the case. Like other OECDcountries, Europe’s per capita extraction is higher than therest of the world. Europe also has the highest net importsof natural resources, at almost 3 tonnes per capita per year.Developing and emerging economies are net exporters ofnatural resources (see Figure 7). Currently, internationaltrade does not balance, but instead reinforces inequalitiesin per capita resource use.Figure 7: Net exports versus net importsper capita, 2000 (vii) Importing feed, exporting milk and meat. Europe is asignificant net importer of fossil fuels and metal ores as wellas of some categories of agricultural and forestry products. 22As Figure 8 shows, Europe has huge net imports of fodderand cereals from other world regions. These resources aremostly used to feed animals, in order to maintain high levelsof production of meat and dairy products. But Europeproduces more meat and dairy products than are consumedby Europeans. These products are therefore exported toother world regions, in particular developing countries. TheEU had a trade surplus of 1.6 million tonnes of meat and 2.0million tonnes of dairy products in 2007 (see Figure 8).Figure 8: EU physical trade balance of selectedbiotic products, 2007 (viii) Fostered by producer subsidies through the Common AgriculturalPolicy, Europe is able to sell this surplus productionabroad at below world market prices. This has had negativeconsequences for local markets in developing countries(see the case study on subsidised European milk powder inWest Africa on page 18).Appropriation of foreign agricultural land. Anotherrelatively new but accelerating trend in the global economicsystem is the increasing trade and investment by richeremerging countries in developing countries. One componentof this trend is the large-scale land deals in whichgovernments (mainly China and the Gulf region) and politicallyinfluential companies buy or lease millions of acresof farmland abroad (largely in Africa and South-East Asia).This land is then used to grow food or biofuel crops insteadof buying these crops on the world markets. 23These developments are a consequence of rising food pricesand increasing concerns over long-term food security andwater shortages. Some argue that such deals may increaseeconomic growth, government revenues and opportunitiesfor economic development in the target countries. Yet theymay also threaten food security, displace local populations,create political unrest and increase land prices.OVERCONSUMPTION? Our use of the world’s natural resources | 17
Page 1 and 2: OVERCONSUMPTION?Our use of the worl
Page 3: Executive summaryNatural resources,
Page 8 and 9: limited amount of wood each year, t
Page 11 and 12: Figure 4: Extraction of resources p
Page 13 and 14: Copper mining and smeltingin Peru 1
Page 15: 4. Trade in resourcesInternational
Page 19 and 20: Export of Fair Trade organic HomMal
Page 21 and 22: larger houses, eat more meat and dr
Page 23 and 24: 6. Resource efficiencyIn Europe, as
Page 25 and 26: Mobile phones: relativeimprovements
Page 27 and 28: Figure 14: “Business-as-usual”
Page 29 and 30: 8. Towards sustainable resource use
Page 31 and 32: continued growth of our economies i
Page 33 and 34: Sources for figures(i)Calculations
Page 35 and 36: 24ICCO. 2007. Food under threat! Th

overconsumption--2009

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?