Global Resources Outlook 2024: Bend the trend. Pathways to a liveable planet as resources use spike

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Global Resources Outlook 2024: Bend the trend. Pathways to a liveable planet as resources use spike

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Business and biodiversity basics

The scientific community has never been more aligned or more determined on the need for an urgent global transformation towards the sustainable use of resources. This 2024 edition of the Global Resources Outlook sheds light on how resources are essential for the effective implementation of the 2030 Agenda and multilateral environmental agreements to address the triple planetary crisis. The report brings together the best available data, models, and evaluations to analyze trends, impacts, and distributional effects of resource use. It draws on more than 15 years of work by the International Resource Panel, including scientific assessments and inputs from countries, a broad network of stakeholders in the field, and regional experts.

The report illustrates how, since the 2019 edition, growing trends in global resource use have continued or accelerated. The report also shows how demand for resources is expected to continue to increase in the coming decades. This means that without urgent and concerted action, by 2060 resource extraction could increase by 60% from 2020 levels, leading to increasing damage and risks.

However, this fate is not sealed. The report also outlines the potential to reverse negative trends and put humanity on a trajectory towards sustainability.

To that end, bold policy action is essential to phase out unsustainable activities, accelerate responsible and innovative ways to meet human needs, and create conditions conducive to social acceptance and equity within the necessary transitions. This includes urgent actions to incorporate resources into the implementation of multilateral environmental agreements, define sustainable resource use routes, and deploy appropriate financial, trade, and economic incentives. The path to sustainability is getting steeper and narrower, and the window of opportunity is closing.

The science is clear: the key question is no longer whether a transformation towards sustainable global resource consumption and production is necessary, but how to make this happen now. Addressing this reality, based on changing concepts of just transition, is an essential part of any credible and justifiable way forward.

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