The Global Journal, a Geneva-based publication that covers international politics and leadership, named Global Footprint Network as one of the world’s 100 Best NGOs this week. These leading 100 actors represent the changing dynamics and innovative approaches of the non-profit world, Global Journal said in its January/February 2012 issue.
“We are humbled to be in the company of the many innovative organizations named in the top 100 who are seeking to create systemic change, ” said Susan Burns, Global Footprint Network’s Senior Vice President and co-founder. “The world now finds itself at a defining moment where ecological constraints are ever more critical as we seek to secure people’s well-being.”
The Global Journal used a specific set of metrics (impact, transparency, accountability, innovation and efficiency) as a rough guideline to rank the NGOs.
“There is no science in the measuring,” Global Journal said. “How does one – after all – compare the fundamental societal impact of an organization like the Wikimedia Foundation, with the tangible outputs of a well oiled humanitarian machine?”
Global Journal said its Top 100 list was meant to inform, stimulate debate, inspire and show the incredible dedication that is displayed on a daily basis in and out of the spotlight on a daily basis.
“Recognizing the significant role of NGOs as influential agents of change on a global scale, The Global Journal has sought to move beyond outdated clichés and narrow conceptions about what an NGO is and does,” the Journal said as it announced the Top 100 list. “From humanitarian relief to the environment, public health to education, microfinance to intellectual property, NGOs are increasingly at the forefront of developments shaping the lives of millions of people around the world.”
Other ranking organizations included Wikimedia, Partners in Health, PATH, CARE International, Gram Vikas, Oxfam and TED.
The joint project between the UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) and Global Footprint Network to assess the financial materiality of ecological risk was launched at the UN Foundation in Washington DC on 17 October 2011. Opening remarks from Paul Clements-Hunt (Head of UNEP FI) and Susan Burns (Senior Vice President of Global Footprint Network) showed a clear commitment from both organisations to this potentially ground breaking project. Richard Burrett, of Earth Capital Partners, also gave an inspiring presentation detailing not only the importance of this project but also how investors currently perceive the financial relevance of natural resources.
It is clear that the tightening constraints on resources and their potential impacts on national economies are not included within current financial analysis. Yet such factors are thought to have growing implications for the long-term credit risk of many government bonds, especially those with long-dated maturities.
A host of financial institutions were in attendance at the launch and participated in a stimulating discussion around the evidence base to show that ecological risks are becoming material for economies and how key ecological data can be linked to the financial and economic indicators. This project will endeavour to shine a light on such questions to explore the role of natural resource accounting in strengthening risk models for government bonds.
Global Footprint Network and UNEP FI would like to thank all those who participated in the launch event and invite any other institutions who are interested to join the project.
For more information please see the project brochure or contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Humanity has reached a new milestone as we hit 7 billion. Never before have there been 7 billion people on planet earth, all at the same time. As we welcome the 7th billion global inhabitant, we also acknowledge the challenges we will face due to a burgeoning population explosion, resource depletion, food and water scarcity and overcrowded cities. This is especially true at a time when humanity as a whole is already using the planets regenerative capacity 50 percent faster than it can renew.
Although humanity’s total demand is unsustainable, this consumption is very unevenly distributed among the 7 billion people. A large portion of humanity does not have enough resources to secure even their most basic subsistence needs. This suffering is intolerable. It affects the rest of humanity, too, most visibly through conflict and instability.
Therefore, Global Footprint Network is mapping how much nature we have, how much we use, and who uses what. In a crowded, resource constrained world this information helps decision makers understand our present resource situation and find options for avoiding unpleasant consequences.
As the world population hits 7 Billion, GrowthBuster’s bold new film will hold its world premiere in Washington DC on November 2, 2011. The film, Hooked on Growth, puts the modern “culture of growth”, as Dave Gardner, the film’s director coins it, under a microscope. Hooked on Growth, offers a look at the plethora of media messaging reinforcing the culture of growth. “We are at a point where we have to choose either a culture of growth or a culture of sustainability,” says Dave Gardner.
“The evidence available to us makes it clear the scale of the human enterprise has outgrown our planet,” says Gardner. “Yet we ignore that evidence, and we do so with wild abandon. GrowthBusters explores why.”
“A 200-year binge of rampant consumption, population and economic growth have led us to believe growth is the path to prosperity and fulfillment,” says Gardner. Chris Martenson, author of The Crash Course, remarks in the film, “We happen to have had growth and prosperity coincident for long enough that we’ve confused them….”
The film calls this a “cultural myth.” GrowthBusters lays much of the blame for the myth’s persistence on the news media. Society is therefore hit with a constant barrage of language and attitude that reinforces the myth and programs the next generation to buy into it. The film identifies another force reinforcing growth addiction as “growth-pushers.” Companies and individuals whose increased wealth depends on market growth, “maintaining the illusion that perpetual growth is possible and desirable,” Gardner states. GrowthBusters examines the beliefs and attitudes causing people to ignore evidence that perpetual growth is taking place.
“This could be the most important film ever made,” writes Paul Ehrlich, Author of The Population Bomb.
Gardner interviewed psychologists, physicists, ecologists, sociologists and economists to research and create GrowthBusters. It features interviews with experts like former World Bank senior economist Herman Daly and former presidential advisors Gus Speth and Robert Solow.
The film offers a hopeful perspective on a dour subject. It profiles “Growthbusters in Action,” groups and individuals pioneering new value systems and ways of life that don’t depend on growth.
After its world premiere November 2, groups and individuals will hold screenings of the film around the world.
Global Footprint Network is the standard setting body for the only Ecological Footprint standards in the world. The Ecological Footprint standards set forth quality criteria for Ecological Footprint studies of sub-national populations, organizations, and products. The goal of the Ecological Footprint Standards is to build consensus among practitioners regarding Ecological Footprint methodology, transparency, and communications. This consensus is important because it helps to establish a forum or a common platform for understanding and communicating about natural resource constraints. To that end, the Ecological Footprint Standards are used as a way of maintaining the scientific credibility and accuracy of Ecological Footprint studies, the policy relevance, and the consistency and appropriateness with which the method is applied and findings communicated.
Global Footprint Network’s Ecological Footprint Standards have been established through a committee-based process that incorporates input from our Partnership Network and Public Comment. The Global Footprint Network Standards Committee is starting the process to review and revise the Ecological Footprint Standards. Participation in the Committee and Procedures for the Committee are outlined in Global Footprint Network Committees Charter. The result of this process will be updates to the 2009 Ecological Footprint Standards to be released towards the end of 2012.
Improving comparability
The original goal of the Ecological Footprint Standards is to increase the quality, reliability and consistency of Footprint assessments. As the Ecological Footprint is being adopted by a growing number of government agencies, organizations and communities as a measure of environmental performance, there is an even greater need for quality, consistency, and reliability. This review and revision process for the 2012 Ecological Footprint Standards is a way to maintain this goal of improving comparability.
In addition, as the Ecological Footprint methodology is applied in different circumstances by different practitioners, advances to the methodology and communications strategies are being made. Conducting a review and revision process every three years allows Global Footprint Network to stay on top of advances in Ecological Footprint science and application. By engaging with experts, our Partner Network, and public comment every three years, our Ecological Footprint Standards can allow for a dynamic process that encourages innovation and action.
Global Footprint Network is actively seeking input from our Partner Network and Public Comment
We invite interested parties to review our Ecological Footprint Standards and submit comments and recommendations for updates to be considered by the Standards Committee. The Standards Committee will start discussions in November, 2011. If you have suggestions that you would like the Standards Committee to consider, please send your input to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Your feedback is welcome during the entire process! Before the revised Standards are finalized in 2012, there will be two 60-day Public Review periods, one in March – May 2012 and the second in July – September 2012. These are your opportunities to provide more input as the draft develops.
UNEP FI project seeks framework for assessing government bonds
Could an abundance of natural wealth be a factor in positively influencing a country’s credit rating and the quality of its bonds? Could a resource-guzzling economy be cause for a downgrade?
The UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) in collaboration with Global Footprint Network and leading financial institutions will endeavor to shine a light on these questions with a groundbreaking project to explore the role of natural resource accounting in strengthening risk models for government bonds. The project seeks to incorporate how much natural wealth countries have – and how much they spend – into assessments of long-term credit risk.
Tightening constraints on resources and their potential impacts on national economies have been largely absent from financial analysis. Yet such factors are thought to have growing implications for the long-term credit risk of many government bonds, especially those with long-dated maturities.
“The global financial crisis has taught us more than anything that some of the core risks that affect the value of debt securities and derivatives can simply run ahead of our ability to understand them,” said Paul Clements-Hunt, Head of UNEP FI. “This is why we must deepen our understanding of the risks posed by climate change, water scarcity and the overuse of natural resources for securities. We should not be caught off-guard again. This project is one of the first that tries to quantitatively and systematically consider the linkages between the use of natural resources and its impact on a country’s core economic indicators that in turn influence the quality of its bonds.”
The bond project was launched yesterday at workshop at a side-event to the UNEP FI Global Roundtable, which is taking place in Washington D.C. this week. The Roundtable draws hundreds of leading financial experts along with high-level government officials seeking to address the link between financial stability and environmental sustainability.
The project has two aims: it will investigate the linkages between ecological risk and country-level risk in sovereign bonds, and develop a methodology to explore how credit rating agencies, investors and financial information providers can integrate ecological data into their respective models. In particular, the analysis will look at the risks to countries whose populations and/or industries require more resources than is domestically available and which are hence reliant on ecological services from abroad.
“As resource constraints tighten globally, countries that depend heavily on ecological services from other nations may find that their resource supply becomes insecure and unreliable. This has economic implications – in particular for countries that depend upon large amounts of ecological assets to power their key industries or to support their consumption patterns and lifestyles,” said Global Footprint Network President Mathis Wackernagel. “Meanwhile, those countries with reserves of valuable natural capital may find themselves in an advantageous position.”
The project will substantiate the business case for financial institutions and ratings agencies to include ecological criteria as a key component of financially material country credit risk analysis. Institutions will thus be enabled to work towards better inclusion of financially-material environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues in financial products and services.
Invitation to attend the launch of Integrating ecological risk in sovereign credit ratings and government bonds 17 October 2011| 13.00 – 17.00 | Washington D.C.
Global Footprint Network and UNEP FI are working with a number of leading financial institutions to collaborate on a transformational project to investigate the linkages between ecological risk and country level risk in sovereign bonds.
The Ecological Footprint and biocapacity trends offer a new way of interpreting the financially material threats and risks that are currently not included in country ratings, investment strategies or risk management systems. The Ecological Footprint combined with biocapacity data provide a novel opportunity to better assess the risks to investments by analyzing resource dependency, trade relationships, commodity costing and risk-stability trends. This is a two-fold project, first it aims to assess the financial materiality of ecological risks relevant for the credit risk evaluation of government bonds; secondly, it will develop a methodology to explore how credit rating agencies, investors and financial information providers can integrate ecological data into their respective models.
Throughout the project a more comprehensive and risk-inclusive understanding of how to evaluate sovereign bonds will be developed. Investments risks can be decreased by gaining a better understanding of resource stability for both biocapacity creditors and national debtors. This project will enable those involved in sovereign bond markets to work towards better inclusion of financially-material environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues.
We invite you to join the launch on 17 October in Washington D.C ahead of the UNEP FI Global Roundtable. The event is meant for financial institutions with an interest in sovereign bond markets that may consider joining the project, as well as those investors and banks that have already confirmed their participation.
Please confirm you participation by contacting .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Or register online here.
Humanity is surpassing nature’s budget for the year, and is now operating in overdraft, according to Global Footprint Network calculations for 2011.
Earth Overshoot Day, which this year falls on September 27, helps conceptualize the degree to which we are over-budget in our use of nature. In approximately nine months, we are demanding a level of ecological services – from producing food and raw materials to filtering our carbon dioxide emissions—equivalent to what the planet can provide for all of 2011. From an ecological standpoint, we have effectively spent our annual salary, with a quarter of the year still to go.
“From soaring food prices to the crippling effects of climate change, our economies are now confronting the reality of years of spending beyond our means,” said Global Footprint Network President Dr. Mathis Wackernagel. “If we are to maintain stable societies and good lives, we can no longer sustain a widening budget gap between what nature is able to provide and how much our infrastructure, economies and lifestyles require.”
Global Footprint Network regrets the passing of Ms. Wangari Maathai, Advisory Council Member and Green Activist
Dr. Wangari Maathai, Kenya’s 2004 Nobel Peace Prize laureate died in Nairobi while undergoing cancer treatment at age 71.
Prof. Wangari Maathai was the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize for starting a movement to reforest Kenya by paying poor women plant trees. She started the Green Belt Movement in 1977, working with women to improve their livelihoods by increasing their access to resources like firewood for cooking and clean water. She became a great advocate for better management of natural resources and for sustainability, equity, and justice. The Green Belt Movement has now planted more than 30 million trees in Africa and has helped nearly 900,000 women, according to the United Nations, while inspiring similar efforts in other African countries.
She was an elected Minister in the Kenyan government from 2002- 2008. She fought tirelessly for sustainable development, democracy and peace. “Wangari Maathai was a force of nature,” stated Achim Steiner, the executive director of the United Nation’s environmental program to the New York Times. He likened her to Africa’s ubiquitous acacia trees, “strong in character and able to survive sometimes the harshest of conditions.”
She was an extraordinary woman who stood up to authority for decades, as an activist and a champion for a greener world.
In her speech accepting the Nobel Prize, Ms Maathai said she hoped her own success would spur other women on to a more active role in the community. “I hope it will encourage them to raise their voices and take more space for leadership,” she said.
Former U.S. vice president Al Gore also paid tribute saying, “Wangari overcame incredible obstacles to devote her life to service—service to her children, to her constituents, to the women, and indeed all the people of Kenya—and to the world as a whole. She was a warm and devoted mother and I send my condolences to her family. She worked tirelessly both as an elected Member of Parliament and an Assistant Minister for Environment and Natural Resources. She forged new ground for women in Kenya helping shatter what we would call the ‘glass ceiling’ in the United States.”
“Africa, particularly African women, have lost a champion, a leader, an activist. We’re going to miss her. We’re going to miss the work she’s been doing all these years on the environment, working for women’s rights and women’s participation,” said President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf said to the BBC. There are calls for her legacy to live on.
Dr. Wangari Maathai was a member of Global Footprint Networks’ Advisory Board since it was formed in 2003. She will be sadly missed.
Global Footprint Network is pleased to welcome Stephen Groff to our Advisory Council. Stephen Groff is the Deputy Director of the Development Cooperation at the OECD in Paris, where he leads strategic policy analysis. Mr. Groff is responsible for strategic policy analysis on a wide range of development-related economic and political issues. He also plays a central role in the monitoring and evaluation of aid efforts, and serves as acting director of the “Partnership for Democratic Governance” – a new multilateral initiative focused on fragile states. He serves as OECD’s envoy to the G20 Working Group on Development, the G8 Accountability Working Group and the UN Secretary General’s High Level Task Force on Food Security. Mr. Groff is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council and is on the board of directors of the National Peace Corps Association.
Having spent the last 25 years working and living in over 30 developing countries around the world, Mr. Groff has extensive international development expertise.
Prior to joining OECD, Mr. Groff was Deputy Vice President for Operations at the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) – a new U.S. bilateral assistance initiative, where he oversaw a broad range of MCC activities and advised the CEO on development issues, strategy and policy while playing a central role in ensuring quality, technical excellence and development impact in MCC operations.He has also served as a senior advisor at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Manila and as the deputy director and chief economist on a large USAID project designed to encourage private sector development in the southern Philippines. Mr. Groff holds a two-year MPA from the Kennedy School at Harvard University and a B.S. from Yale College.
Groff’s extensive development and policy experience will bring a valuable perspective to our work and research.
This year is the 50th anniversary of WWF’s short-film festival.
WWF is asking creative and innovative filmmakers to participate in this year’s short film festival: Life. Nature. You. Make the Connection.
The contest invites both aspiring and accomplished film-makers to produce an original two minute film.
The judging panel has now been selected and WWF will name two winning entries, one judged by a jury, the other judged by peers. The winners will receive a commission from WWF to produce a special short film that will inspire people to value and protect our environment, and an all expenses paid trip to India to attend the CMS Vatavaran environmental film festival.
To learn more about the rules and how to enter, visit WWF Short Film Competition.
The deadline is November 1st.
Finding the sweet spot between low Footprint and high human development amounts to the biggest business opportunity ever seen, World Business Council for Sustainable Development President Bjorn Stigson told the Sydney Morning Herald this week.
What is required for sustainable development is lifting billions out of poverty while reducing resource use by four to ten times, the article said. This is, according to Stigson, is a necessary but unprecedented transformation, larger and faster than the Industrial Revolution. It is an enormous challenge. But whoever “wins” the green race will dominate the future would economy, and right now, China is winning, Stigson said.
Global Footprint Network President Mathis Wackernagel will join Former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme and other speakers at a United Nations meeting of global financial leaders in Washington, D.C. this fall addressing the link between financial stability and environmental sustainability.
The biannual meeting of the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) Global Roundtable is a high-level conference that draws a select group of 600 banking, insurance and investment leaders and global thinkers for an intensive, two-day dialogue. This year’s discussion is positioned to channel the views of the financial services sector into the discussions at the so-called “Rio + 20” Conference, a UN summit that will gather world leaders in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 20 years after the original Rio Earth Summit.
Global Footprint has launched a comprehensive review and update of its Ecological Footprint Standards, to be released in 2012. The standards (available here) establish best practices to govern the use and applicability of the Footprint method, allowing users everywhere to employ the Footprint across a wide range of approaches and applications while maintaining consistency, credibility, and integrity of results.
Global Footprint Network partner Bank Sarasin has been honored with the City of London’s Sustainable City Award for its innovative financial analysis using Ecological Footprint accounting as a credit risk factor in assessing government bonds.
The judges chose the Swiss banking firm as the overall winner for “research into how being green affects a nations’ growth prospects,” according to a press release issued by the prize committee. “This ‘green is good for the economy’ message is all the more powerful for having come from a bank rather than an NGO.”
Recently, the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR) teamed up with Global Footprint Network to explore the Ecological Footprint of San Francisco, a city that prides itself on leading the US in forward-thinking sustainability policies.
Our current economic and pricing mechanisms simply don’t square with physical reality: that is the hypothesis of two new, widely-celebrated books, which lead with Global Footprint Network statistics.
The ecological facts on the ground are clear, environmental scientist Lester Brown attests in his book World On the Edge, which he was writing as heat-induced wildfires vaporized almost half of Russia’s wheat harvest, put a fifth of Pakistan underwater and sent food prices spiraling. Yet economic policies continue to be based upon an endless supply of cheap and available natural resources. It’s a disconnect he likens to the theories of astronomy in the days just before Copernicus.
The US Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 9, covering the Pacific Southwest, has contracted Global Footprint Network to conduct an Ecological Footprint analysis of California, which will be the first such in-depth look at the Footprint of a US state. The agency plans to incorporate the Ecological and water Footprints into a dashboard of sustainability indicators. EPA’s Region 9 serves Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Pacific Islands and 147 Tribes.
Global Footprint Network’s data will contribute to an analysis that will explore issues such as how much of harvested land is irrigated, how much of California’s biocapacity is occupied by built-up land, and what are the main drivers of ecological demand in the state. It will also explore new areas in Footprint and biocapacity research, such as how demand on biological and water resources could affect the state’s ecological productivity.
Earlier this year, Visualizing.org, acreative community working to use data and design to help communicate complex issues, presented a challenge: How to illustrate the value of nature and our use of nature’s services. The group joined up with TEEB (the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity), a UN-sponsored effort to put a dollar figure on nature’s services such as providing fuel, food, water and habitat, by assessing both their economic benefits and the costs associated with their depletion.
The winning entry for the challenge used Global Footprint Network data to show the relationship between countries’ ecological demand, their biocapacity and the size of their deficit or reserve. Check it out here: http://www.visualizing.org/stories/visualizing-value-nature
Investing just 2 percent of global GDP to green key sectors of the economy could cut humanity’s Ecological Footprint almost in half while actually boosting economic growth, according to a new report by the United Nations Environmental Programme.
The report cites Global Footprint Network data as evidence of the challenge humanity has faced in improving human welfare without also incurring large increases in ecological demand.
In recent weeks, opponents of a proposed carbon tax have succeeded in fanning fear that the tax could hurt national competitiveness by denting demand for Australia’s coal and mining sectors. Yet such fears are decidedly misplaced. The Gillard government’s plan to put a levy on the worst contributors to carbon pollution reflects a move toward pricing that is rooted firmly in the ecological realities of the 21st century. It is pricing that promotes forward-looking investment and innovation, rather than subsidizing an outmoded status quo. And it is pricing that will ultimately mean more jobs and better lives for Australian residents, and more stability for the Australian economy.
Coal and mining executives protest that jobs could be lost if importing countries such as China and Japan have a reason to seek out other markets. Such concerns, however, beg a question: If jobs are lost today because of an uptick in the cost of doing business, what will be the impact on the sector as the global marketplace moves to cleaner, greener solutions? In a world facing climate change and growing constraints on resources, the good money is on those industries that lead the way in energy efficiency and clean technology. Australia’s mining sector—in particular its coal industry—is on the other end of that spectrum, topping the list in carbon pollution and environmental demand.
“We really need to stop thinking that this will mean acting out ahead of the world,” GE Capital’s regional chief executive Steve Sargent was quoted as saying in a recent article in Business Day. “We actually have a long way to catch up. Germany has broken the nexus between strong economic growth, strong trade growth, and increasing greenhouse gas emissions. With Australia, we have gotten worse.”
The booming profits of the coal and mining sector mask a growing cost to the health of another of Australia’s most important assets: its vast ecological wealth. Australia ranks seventh in the world in biocapacity, the amount of renewable natural resources its ecosystems can provide.
If well-managed, this self-replenishing source of wealth will offer Australia continued advantages, both in supplying the resources the rest of the world needs, and in providing for the needs of its own people. In a world in which the supply of renewable natural resources is shrinking while demand mushrooms, the potential value of this asset is inestimable. But there is a key problem: the principal is eroding.
Between 1961 and 2007, the most recent year for which data are available, Australia’s biocapacity per person fell by more than half, due largely to a similar amount of capacity being divided by a growing number of people. Total biocapacity has declined by about five percent. At the same time, Australia’s Ecological Footprint, the amount of productive land and sea required to produce the resources it consumes and absorb CO2 emissions, is the 12th largest in the world, and the country is one of the world’s highest per-capita emitters of carbon dioxide. This degree of resource-intensity implies significant changes not only to key sectors but to society as a whole if Australia is to keep step with the rest of world.
Analysis by investment firms such as Goldman Sachs, Citi, Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan have put the impact of the tax at less than two percent of earnings for all but a very few Australian companies. These are negligible impacts in a time of soaring profits, and they scarcely approach the true costs of emissions.
The Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering assessed that, for every megawatt hour produced by brown coal, a cost of $50 in greenhouse gas pollution and health impacts accrues to society. Such costs are paid for by citizens or borrowed against Australia’s future in ways such as depleted ecosystems and lost agricultural productivity.
The Gillard government’s plan to institute a carbon tax recognizes a key reality: If we continue to build our success on using ever more resources, we are preparing for our demise. If instead, we invest in building environmental capital and reducing ecological demand, we can adjust more comfortably, and even profitably, to a changing world. Mechanisms that help us do so are anything but uncompetitive. They are a strategy for managing our economy with an eye to the future rather than the past.
Investing just 2 percent of global GDP to green key sectors of the economy could cut humanity’s Ecological Footprint almost in half while actually boosting economic growth, according to a new report by the United Nations Environmental Program.
The report cites Global Footprint Network data as evidence of the challenge humanity has faced in improving human welfare without also incurring large increases in ecological demand.
“With 2.5 billion people living on less than $2 a day and with more than two billion people being added to the global population by 2050, it is clear that we must continue to develop and grow our economies,” said UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner in a press release. “But this development cannot come at the expense of the very life support systems on land, in the oceans or in our atmosphere that sustain our economies, and thus, the lives of each and everyone of us.”
The report calls for channeling $1.3 trillion into the transformation of 10 key sectors—agriculture, buildings, energy supply, fisheries, forestry, industry, tourism, transport, waste management and water. Such a shift, the report asserts, could deliver long-term growth equal to or better than the most optimistic scenarios projected under current economic policies, while avoiding the catastrophic risks of “business-as-usual” such as climate change, water scarcity and loss of ecosystem services.
Greening key sectors would spur growth in jobs and wealth that, over the long term, would exceed those lost from the transition away from resource-intensive activities, the report says. It would also have greater impact in reducing poverty because of the direct reliance of the poor on the health and vitality of their surrounding natural environment.
As a society that relies extensively on resources from abroad, Hong Kong is particularly vulnerable to growing global constraints on resources, the report says. But in spite of its unsustainable consumption, there are a number of readily available measures that would enable Hong Kong to reduce its pressure on ecological services, and enable it to achieve a one-planet Ecological Footprint.
The Hong Kong Ecological Footprint Report, issued every two years, aims to provide a benchmark to track Hong Kong residents’ shifts in consumption, from which trends can be identified and actions proposed.
The 2010 report reveals that if everyone in the world lived a similar lifestyle to that of Hong Kong residents, we would need the equivalent of 2.2 Earths. In 2007, the most recent year for which data are available, Hong Kong residents had an average per person Ecological Footprint of 4.0 global hectares (hectares with world-average productivity). This level of demand is more than double the 1.8 gha that was available per person globally in 2007 to produce renewable resources and absorb CO2.
“Unsustainable demand on a global scale means that countries and regions such as Hong Kong will find it increasingly harder to meet their resource needs simply by relying on ecological services from abroad,” said Dr. Wackernagel. “The more it can provide a high quality of life for its residents on a smaller Ecological Footprint, Hong Kong will not only address global risks, but more directly, it will make its economy more resilient facing the future.”
The largest portion of Hong Kong’s Ecological Footprint—60 percent—comes from carbon dioxide emissions. Hong Kong’s carbon Footprint per person has grown 24-fold since 1962. While 26 percent of its carbon Footprint comes from CO2 emitted from within Hong Kong itself (for example, from vehicles and electricity use), the majority, 74 percent is embodied in goods and services produced abroad. Some 58 million tonnes of CO2 are emitted elsewhere to supply imports to Hong Kong.
Other major drivers of Hong Kong’s Footprint are consumption of seafood and timber products, which are mostly from unsustainable sources.
But there are reasons for optimism. In contrast to the rest of China, Hong Kong’s Ecological Footprint per person has declined 25 percent and leveled off since it peaked in the late 1990s. While it is no doubt benefiting from some increased efficiencies in the city, the decline appears largely due to vagaries in the trade of the embodied carbon of goods and natural resources, and of cropland products. It is mostly not the result of sustainable development policies.
One key way Hong Kong could reduce its Footprint is by boosting the market for sustainable goods. “Consumers can demand that the seafood and timber products we consume are produced sustainably,” notes Dr Andy Cornish, Director, Conservation at WWF-Hong Kong. “In this way we can leverage Hong Kong’s buying power and act as a regional catalyst to drive natural resource producers towards sustainability. In turn, this will create an increased and reliable supply of sustainable products for Hong Kong.”
With 70 percent of the average carbon Footprint coming from household consumption (as opposed to businesses or public infrastructure and services), individual choices have a key role to play. The report calls on Hong Kong to reduce excessive, inefficient and wasteful consumption. It also calls for transforming its modest agriculture, aquaculture and fisheries industries to minimize their impact to the environment.
“Solutions are readily available, and Hong Kong is a city used to reinventing itself,” the report concludes. “Reducing Hong Kong’s Ecological Footprint per person by half would approximate the biocapacity that is available globally and, therefore, make it a logical and sustainable objective.”
Global Footprint Network is pleased to announce that licenses for 2010 National Footprint Accounts are now available. The licenses provide complete the underlying data and calculations for each country published in the National Accounts and are available in a number of editions, some fee-based and some free of charge.
Some 50 square meters of parkland per inhabitant. A food-for-trash program that supports a 70-percent citywide recycling rate: the highest in the world. A public transportation system that carries 1.9 million riders a day, 70 percent of commuter traffic. A vast network of open space, mowed by grass-nibbling sheep, that serves as flood control and offers an attractive alternative to concrete canals.
These are just a few of the attributes that make Curitiba, Brazil something of an Emerald City for green development.
A report on Japan’s Ecological Footprint, which identifies leading areas of ecological demand and offers policy recommendations to address them, has generated considerable interest in the country. The Japan Ecological Footprint Report was released this August in Tokyo to an audience of journalists and environment ministry representatives. Findings have been covered by more than 50 print and online news outlets, including a feature in Asahi, a daily newspaper with a circulation of 8.22 million.
Sustainability is an intrinsic part of people’s ability to live satisfying lives according to the United Nations Development Programme—which is why, for the first time it has included the Ecological Footprint in its annual Human Development Report. (Download the report here.) It has also developed an interactive tool on its Web site that allows users to apply a suite of indicators— including Ecological Footprint—to build their own development index. The tool allows users to create unique country rankings and comparisons based on the indicators they find most important. (Click here to build your own development index.)
Peru’s recently-formed Ministry of Environment has stated its interest in adopting the Ecological Footprint.
As one of the world most geographically and biologically diverse countries, Peru boasts an interesting distinction: it is the only country that falls within a one-planet Ecological Footprint while meeting the UN’s minimum threshold for “high human development.” In recent years the country has experienced its highest economic growth ever and seen significant reductions in poverty. Even so, Peru faces constraints on critical resources, such as water, that threaten these gains. It also faces key social challenges, such as chronic malnutrition and regional poverty rates that top 60 percent in some places. Here, the need is especially keen to increase quality of life in a way that does not spur resource shortages.
A satellite image taken by Google Earth offers this telling visualization of our impact on the planet—a giant green boot print on a snowy field. The image is part of a campaign by 350.org to create art large enough to be seen from space, an effort to draw attention to the scope of the climate challenge. The piece, organized by the Vancouver Public Space Network, was created by more than 100 people who gathered in sub-zero temperatures early one morning holding aloft green umbrellas.
(and waiting for consensus might waste your future) By Mathis Wackernagel
As world leaders head into the final days of climate talks in Cancun, it is time to put to right a misperception that for too long has shackled our approach to this vital issue. The error is simply this: Taking action is a burden some nations will need to shoulder for the good of the world – rather than the single best action each nation can take to further its own long-term interests.
The question by governments of “What’s in it for me?” has up to now been a major stumbling block to international agreement. But if leaders and their administrations truly understood the underlying resource dynamics, they would have the exact opposite approach. They would see it is in their self-interest to act quickly and aggressively, whatever the actions taken by their global neighbors. In fact, each country’s own actions will become more urgent and valuable the less others do.
Why would it be in any individual country’s interest to address a problem whose costs are ultimately born by all of humanity? Consider the nature of the carbon problem.
Climate change, first and foremost, is a consequence of high fossil fuel dependence. Even though climate change is a global problem, the fossil fuel dependence that contributes to it carries growing economic risks for the emitting country. Working our way out of this addiction takes time, and the longer we wait to radically rethink and retool our societies, the less chance we will have to alter course.
But there is another important piece of the picture beyond fossil fuel. Climate change is not an issue in isolation, but rather, a symptom of a broader challenge: humanity’s systematic overuse of the planet’s finite resources.
Our natural systems can only generate a finite amount of raw materials (fish, trees, crops, etc.) and absorb a finite amount of waste (such as carbon dioxide emissions). Global Footprint Network quantifies this rate of output through a measure called biocapacity. Biocapacity is as measurable as GDP – and, ultimately, far more significant, as access to basic living resources underlies every economic activity a society can undertake.
Up to now, we have treated biocapacity as an essentially limitless flow, to the point that our demand for nature’s services now outstrips biocapacity by 50 percent, according to Global Footprint Network’s latest research . This approach has been an integral part of the climate crisis, as with every hectare of forest we clear for raw materials, built-up land or other land-uses (such as grazing or cropland), we reduce the Earth’s ability to absorb CO2 and regulate climate.
Ecological trends suggest, however that we will soon be facing another crunch: biocapacity.
Consider this: No matter which way the future goes, whether we avoid climate disaster or we continue with business as usual, increasing consumption, population and CO2 emission, the pressure on biocapacity will escalate— and having access to biocapacity will earn ever higher premiums.
The Climate Accord vs. the Runaway Scenario
The US President, European heads of state and other G-20 leaders have affirmed the need to stay within a 2º Celsius climate alteration (at a minimum) to avoid widespread calamity. Some climate models point to a 350 ppm limit for CO2 in the atmosphere in order to achieve this – less than the carbon concentration we have today. Yet even if we aim for the more conservative target of 450 ppm, this would call for shifting out of fossil fuel, and a wholesale restructuring of the way we produce and use energy. But hardly anybody admits this mathematical truth.
Even with significant development of wind and solar power technologies, if we want to have the amount and ease of choice around energy availability we have enjoyed up to now, we will need to rely to some extent on fuels from biological sources. Add to that the resources needed to provide for a growing population, a swelling middle class, and the two billion alive today who lack enough to meet basic needs. It is clear, even with a strong climate accord, biocapacity will be under pressure as never before.
And what if we don’t succeed in heading off climate change? Biocapacity will become even more vulnerable and, in all likelihood, subject to staggering declines. With crops failing and drought widespread, the failure of an international cooperation will set a poor stage for negotiating the distribution of dwindling resources. Those countries whose economies depend most on access to massive amounts of resources – especially resources from abroad – will find themselves particularly vulnerable.
Winning – or losing – the Earth Race
In a world facing a biocapacity crunch, the winning economic strategies will be preserving biocapacity on the one hand, and reducing demand for it on the other. And here’s a bit of good news: those also happen to be leading strategies for minimizing climate change.
Many believe the race to develop green technology – what columnist Thomas Friedman has dubbed the “Earth Race”— will bring the spoils of the future to the early movers and adopters, and secure innovative nations and enterprises with positions of advantage on the global stage. This is the carrot pushing green innovation. But there is an even more powerful stick. Those countries and cities trapped in energy- and resource-intensive infrastructure will not be able to adapt in time to meet the emerging resource constraints.
In the face of a failure to reach agreement at Cancun, individual countries will have to do more to curb their resource demand in order to assure their long-term stability and security. The lack of agreement won’t give us a break from taking action—on the contrary, it will force us to work significantly harder.
If our leaders understood this, the discussion at global climate talks would take an entirely new direction. As Cancun draws to a close, we are not calling on leaders simply to do what’s needed for the good of other nations. Rather, we are asking them to come to the table mindful of what they must do to responsibly serve their own.
How can we provide well for the world’s people without bankrupting the natural systems that underlie all economic (and human) activities? The key, according to a new report by the Center for a Steady State Economy and based on input from leading economists, lies in shifting our economic systems from those based on the idea of more to those based on that of enough.
Humanity is now using nature’s services 50 percent faster than what Earth can renew, reveals the 2010 edition of the Living Planet Report – the leading survey of the planet’s health.
The biennial report, produced by WWF in collaboration with Global Footprint Network and the Zoological Society of London, was released today at the Wild Screen Film Festival in Bristol, U.K. Coming just days before leaders of the world’s governments meet in Nagoya, Japan to set a new agenda for addressing species loss, the report details alarming biodiversity declines along with a rapid escalation of human demand that is far outstripping nature’s regenerative capacity.
“The dwindling health of the world’s species is no surprise considering how much of nature’s services humanity is taking for its own use,” said Mathis Wackernagel, President of Global Footprint Network. “Ultimately, enabling biodiversity to thrive will require bringing human demand for nature’s services to a level Earth can sustainably supply.”
Just what do terms like biodiversity, the Ecological Footprint and ecosystem services actually mean? WWF provides lighthearted answers with this animated short film, narrated by British comic Stephen Merchant. The film was shown at the Wild Screen Film Festival in Bristol as part of the launch of the Living Planet Report 2010.
How do we define progress? In a speech to TED talks, new economics foundation Statician Nic Marks challenges the notion that benchmarks such as GDP, focused on how much we produce, tell us anything about the welfare of a nation. He proposes a new way of measuring progress, one based on country’s success at providing happy, healthy lives for their citizens, while preserving the natural capital that will make such lives possible for the next generation. “When economics deals with a scare resource, it thinks in terms of efficiency. How much bang do we get for our buck. The Happy Planet Index is ultimately an efficiency measure: How much well-being we get for our planetary resource use.” Learn which countries fare the best by this measure of success.
It has taken humanity less than nine months to exhaust its ecological budget for the year, according to Global Footprint Network calculations.
Tomorrow, August 21, we will reach Earth Overshoot Day: the day of the year in which human demand on the biosphere exceeds what it can regenerate. As of that day, humanity will have demanded all the ecological services – from filtering CO2 to producing the raw materials for food – that nature can regenerate this year. For the rest of the year, we will meet our ecological demand by depleting resource stocks and accumulating greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
“If you spent your entire annual income in nine months, you would probably be extremely concerned,” said Global Footprint Network President Mathis Wackernagel. “The situation is no less dire when it comes to our ecological budget. Climate change, biodiversity loss, deforestation, water and food shortages are all clear signs: We can no longer finance our consumption on credit. Nature is foreclosing.”
With the richest biodiversity in the world per hectare, Ecuador has abundant natural capital. But in the last 50 years, it’s ecological surplus has dwindled to almost zero. Its Ecological Footprint currently is almost equal to its biocapacity, the amount of resources the land and sea area within its borders is able to produce.
Dania Quirola Suarez, Advisor to the National Secretary of Planning and Development of Ecuador, told attendees of an important step Ecuador has taken to address its ecological balance sheet. It has included the metric in its National Development Plan, setting a target to reduce the nation’s Footprint to a level at or below biocapacity by 2013.
In keeping with that commitment, Ecuador has launched a plan to keep 846 million barrels of oil under the Amazon rainforest permanently in the ground, Suarez told attendees. The plan would keep 407 metric tones of CO2 out of the atmosphere, and preserve one million acres of forest preserved. It also preserves the livelihood of those belonging to the indigenous cultures from the region. “In this way, we can move from an extractive economy to sustainable development, that includes broader use of energy sources and increasing social equity,” Suarez said.
The United Arab Emirates is one of the countries with the largest deficits between “income” in the form of biocapacity and “expenses” of resources, Razan Al Mubarak, Director, Emirates Wildlife Society, told attendees. In 2007, the country adopted a national Ecological Footprint Initiative to address that gap.
In the latter 20th century, the UAE enjoyed explosive economic growth, largely due to the production of oil and gas, and that wealth has helped support some of the largest per-capita resource consumption in the world. On the other hand, the country has very low biocapacity, and must import most of its resources from abroad. When UAE leaders learned the country topped the world in per-capita Ecological Footprint, they were at first skeptical of the data, Mubarak said. But with support from local NGOs advancing the Footprint Initiative, “there became increasing understanding of and support for the data. From there, there became fantastic momentum toward, ‘what are we going to do about it?’
The Mediterranean region has been rocked this year by an economic crisis resulting from over-extension of financial resources. But Greece, Italy and other countries of the Mediterranean face another yawning deficit – an ecological deficit – that poses deep-seeded risks to the region’s long-term success. On the opening day of Footprint Forum, Global Footprint Network announced the launch of its Mediterranean Initiative to address and potentially reverse this trend.
Help us communicate about ecological overshoot by submitting a 2-3 minute video to our Ecological Debt Video Contest. Winners receive cash prizes, Footprint DVDs, and more!
The Charles University Environment Center, a Global Footprint Network partner, is organizing a ConAccount international conference entitled “Urban metabolism: measuring the ecological city”. The conference, which will include a section on measuring the Ecological Footprint of cities, will take place in Prague, capital city of the Czech Republic on 11-12 September 2008. The organizers have announced a call for abstracts, due on 15 March. For more information on the event, see the conference website.
Global Footprint Network partner WWF Cymru has launched an ambitious ‘One Planet Wales’ Campaign to move Welsh citizens towards high quality, low Footprint lives – with the goal of living within the means of one planet by 2050. Central to the campaign is the recently released One Planet Wales report, authored by WWF Cymru and the Centre for Urban and Regional Ecology, University of Manchester. The report outlines the path forward to reach the 75% reduction in Wales’ Ecological Footprint that will be required to meet the 2050 target.
Discovery Communications is launching a new 24/7 eco-lifestyle television channel, “Planet Green”, with an original 10-part series, WA$TED, that features the Ecological Footprint of average Americans.
Radiohead, a well-known British rock-band, recently commissioned Global Footprint Network partner Best Foot Forward (BFF) to analyze the band’s Footprint and help reduce their tour’s carbon emissions. BFF’s report shows that transport, how fans get to Radiohead’s shows, is the most important lever for reducing the tour’s Footprint.
Mathis Wackernagel talks about Ecological Debt Day, how to slow our appetite for resources, and what we can do to better manage our natural assets on Earth & Sky Radio. Listen here.
This fall our Executive Director, Mathis Wackernagel, received an Honorary Doctorate in natural sciences from the University of Bern in Switzerland for “developing and promoting the internationally recognized method of the Ecological Footprint; for authoring numerous scientific and popular media contributions to the topic of ecological carrying capacity and sustainability; and for being an inexhaustible Footprint spokesperson on all continents and founder of the Global Footprint Network and bringing together scientists and politicians.” Wackernagel was the youngest recipient and accepted his honorary PhD at an awards Ceremony in Bern last month.
The Ecological Footprint as a sustainability indicator adds an important dimension to GDP, and should have equal weight in guiding policy. Such is the conclusion of a committee convened by the European Commission to research policy instruments that could support more balanced decision-making than GDP alone.
There is no resource more critical to life on the planet than water – yet as a result of human activity, we find it as so many other vital reserves to be in increasingly short supply. With drought and water pollution deepening concerns, the Living Planet Report 2008 (released recently by Global Footprint Network, WWF and Zoological Society of London) adopted a new index to measure human demand on water: the water footprint, developed by University of Twente, Netherlands, Professor Arjen Hoekstra.
After completing a thorough, two-year review and update to the methodology for calculating national Footprints, Global Footprint Network has published three resources supporting the 2008 Edition of the National Footprint Accounts. They present comprehensive results, provide a step-by-step guide to the equations and calculations, and offer complete transparency of the source data.
Global Footprint Network has completed an extensive Web site redesign, with improved navigation, more interactive features, updated visuals and clearer, more concise language. The site is organized into five key sections. About Us, Footprint Basics (general Footprint explanations, data and the work we do in various sectors), Footprint Science (detailed information on accounts, research and methodology), Partnerships, and Resources (our newsroom, personal calculator and downloadable copies of all of our reports.)
We have also launched a version of the site in German, and will be adding additional languages in the early part of next year.
An engine of economic activity in China, Hong Kong is also a major center of resource consumption in the country, according to a study released this month by Global Footprint Network and WWF.
At 4.4 global hectares per person, Hong Kong residents have an Ecological Footprint twice that typical for China as a whole. Hong Kong also has one of the greatest ecological deficits in the world, according to Hong Kong Ecological Footprint Report: Living Beyond Our Means. The report details Hong Kong’s resource use and its role in the overall ecological picture of China – a country that now ties the U.S. as the largest user of the world’s biocapacity.
A Sustainable Investment Firm’s Response to the Financial Crisis
Environmental concerns tend to take a back seat in tough economic times. But at least one asset management firm is taking exactly the opposite tack – stressing that now, more than ever, sound investing means adequately valuing the underlying natural assets upon which all our economic systems depend.
“So far, the economic crisis we are facing has been explained by financial leverage,” said Carsten Henningsen, co-founder of the global sustainability fund Portfolio 21. “However, there is a direct link between the financial crisis and the ecological crisis. To the extent that ecological limits place limits on the growth rates of earnings, stock prices will fall.”
Recent headlines such as “A Measure Remodeled” (Financial Times) and “Time to Order a New Economic Order” (the Huffington Post) reflect a growing call to reform GDP, our standard measure of economic performance. On Huffington Post, a popular political news Web site, an article read: “Most, if not all, ministers of finance and conventional economists don’t account for how the planet works, or even that the economy exists on a finite planet.”
Africa: Ecological Footprint Factbook 2009, released in February, was the latest result of that ongoing initiative. The 20-page report features three countries: Egypt, Tanzania and Zambia, and includes Ecological Footprint and biocapacity trends, as well as guest perspectives on each country’s environmental issues and challenges.
On the shores of Zambia’s Lake Bangweulu, 26 young women stooped by the water with an assortment of gadgets, learning how take measurements of pH, depth, visibility, current and temperature. One student lowered a rope with a brick on the end and used it to gauge depth. Another used a clear, flat instrument called a secchi disk to measure visibility, while a third navigated the position of each data point using a GPS.
Kicking off an initiative that could redefine how we value and negotiate resources in the 21st century, key policy experts and opinion leaders met April 10 in Lima, Peru, for the first workshop of Global Footprint Network’s Ecological Creditor Initiative. World Bank representatives, policy experts and opinion leaders met with representatives from Global Footprint Network and the Community of Andean Nations to begin a series of workshops on the growing significance of biocapacity and its potential for competitive advantage in a resource-constrained world.
The Ecological Footprint Standards Committee is inviting public comment on its proposed 2009 Ecological Footprint Standards. The standards are designed to ensure that Ecological Footprint assessments are produced consistently and according to community-proposed best-practices. These new methodological standards focus on Ecological Footprint studies for organizations and products. They were created over the past six months by the Ecological Footprint Standards Committee and the Standards Working Group.
Global Footprint Network has been named a Phoenix 50 organization, one of “50 pioneers in the business of social innovation” that can enable humanity to emerge from the economic crisis with a society better adapted to our global challenges.
“Humanity is brushing up against ecological limits”, “natural resources are dwindling”, “unsustainable consumption increases” – whatever the chosen term or headline, the fact is that the concept of overshoot has gotten a lot of media attention recently. The past few months have seen stories in The New Yorker, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journalamong others, all reflecting a growing awareness that carbon is only part of the overshoot story.
What does the word “footprint” mean? Today, it’s likely to refer less to the tread mark your sneaker leaves in the dirt, and more to the imprint you’ll leave on the planet. So says word maven William Safire in a recent “On Language” column in the New York Times Magazine. In the February 17 column, Safire traces the word’s journey from its literal meaning to the metaphoric significance it has gained in recent years as a measure of environmental impact.
As the second fastest-growing Canadian city with a population that has grown 13 percent in five years, Calgary finds itself at a critical moment. City leaders are faced with making infrastructure and planning decisions that will shape the way residents live for years to come and are looking to balance the needs of citizens with a growing concern about the city’s use of natural resources. The government has launched an Ecological Footprint project with Global Footprint Network that will help officials understand the ecological impacts of these decisions – and move in a direction that provides the most ecologically sustainable future for its citizens.
In Deep Economy, renowned environmental journalist and climate activist Bill McKibben has done more than simply write a catchy page-turner; he has created a blueprint for bringing humanity out of overshoot. McKibben weaves evidence of our ecological crisis (including Footprint data) with explorations of the history and psychology of our growth-based economy and “hyper-individualist” culture. Clearly but gently, he shows how global economic expansion has become our culture’s mantra, yet is simply not an option if humans are to survive this era of global overshoot.
Since our inception in 2004, Global Footprint Network has invited organizations with shared goals to partner with us in strengthening the Footprint and enhancing its value as a catalyst for sustainability. We began with just 12 founding partners and have expanded to well over 80 organizations with the common vision of ending overshoot.
Click here to download Global Footprint Network’s 2007 Annual Report. The past year has been one of growth for both our organization and for the Footprint’s influence in the world. Our Annual Report expresses hope and progress towards ending overshoot, with great strides in our Ten-in-Ten campaign, our work with Human Development in Africa, India and China, and Footprinting for local governments. It also celebrates a diversity of Footprint successes from our partner organizations and maps out our plans for an even more impactful 2008.
Among the many benefits of educating girls in Africa is its potential for reducing population pressure, Camfed International Director Ann Cotton said at the Footprint Forum Conference public day. Girls’ education has moved center stage from being viewed as a gender and equality issue to one that is increasingly seen as central to global security and the elimination of poverty, Cotton said. “Every child is born to a mother, and when a child is born to a mother who is not educated, that child is at a disadvantage from the start.”
The world’s economic powers are engaged in a new wave of outsourcing – one that poses a stark distinction with that of manufacturing in the 1980s, and information technology in the 1990s, according to a recent report in The Economist (“Buying Farmland Abroad: Outsourcing’s Third Wave,” May 23, 2009). Concerned by recent world food shortages, rich governments are buying up tracks of land in foreign (mostly low-income) countries to ensure continued access to food and other vital agricultural resources.
Feeding the 9 billion people projected by mid-century is possible, but doing so will require major economic and political changes, Juan Gonzales-Valero of agri-business leader Syngenta said on the second day at the conference. Gonzales-Valero presented the findings of Vision 2050, an effort by the World Business Council of Sustainable Development, representing 29 of the world’s most influential companies, to develop pathways to a one-planet economy by 2050.
The world is headed toward a no-growth economy, but how the transition is managed will make the difference between whether that correction is drastic or benign. This warning came from economist Hannes Kunzon tat a plenary discussion on rethinking growth. “We don’t have to rethink growth,” Kunz said. “Growth is going to go away.”
Countries with healthy ecological balance sheets make for safer investments and will be better able to meet their debt obligations—so says Balacz Magyar, a representative of Swiss-based private banking firm Sarasin Bank. The bank, with 63.2 billion worth of assets under management, has implemented a system of rating country bonds based on sustainability and Ecological Footprint. Countries are required to meet a minimum resource efficiency and availability threshold to be eligible for inclusion in certain portfolios. “We believe that only these countries will be able to pursue the economic activities they will need to pay back their debts in the long-run,” said Balazs Magyar, Head of Sustainable Investment Portfolio Management for Sarasin. High foreign and public debt means conceding future resources to someone else, he said, and the issue is similar for ecological as for economic debt.
There is no cheap-oil future for us, and if humanity doesn’t make the transition to a sustainable energy source, Mother Nature will. Robert Rapier, Chief Technology Officer of Merica International, issued this warning during an opening presentation at Footprint Forum aimed at providing a briefing in some of the ways we are hitting ecological limits.
According to Rapier, we are reaching the point at which rising human demand for oil is outpacing our ability to discover new sources of oil. As populations grows and large segments of humanity seek to improve their standard of living, supply will simply not be able to keep up with demand, driving the price of oil up and availability down.
According to Rapier, peak oil—when oil production rates begin an irreversible decline – will have a direct effect on global warming. “When there’s a decline in oil production, the first thing we do is turn to coal plants and tar sands,” he said. “We will demand that because we have built a society on cheap oil. But eventually fossil fuels will run out.” That would address the problem of climate change, he said, but most likely not in the way people would like to see it solved.
“Politicians are caught in a dilemma between political suicide and ecological suicide,” Dr. Mathis Wackernagel told the gathering of 200 scientists, economists, and government and business leaders during Footprint Forum’s opening plenary session. What most policy-makers have failed to realize is that those countries that can maintain a positive ecological balance will have a large advantage in a world facing climate change and ecological limits, he said. United Nations Environment Programme representative Haroldo Mattos de Lemos put it another way: “Businesses plan for next decade. Governments plan for the next election.”
But some countries are already taking action to address their ecological balance sheet, and attendees heard from two such countries: the UAE which has very low biocapacity and yet has the highest per capita Ecological Footprint in the world, and Ecuador, which has an extremely rich biocapacity that it wants to maintain.
Swiss-based Bank Sarasin has developed a new country bond rating that could shift the way investors think about sovereign bonds – and the way governments think about their own ecological balance sheets. The evaluation is based upon a simple, but somewhat novel premise: given current ecological trends, a country’s use and availability of resources will play an important role in its ability to make good on future debt obligations.
Global Footprint Network’s Call for Abstracts for the Footprint Forum Conference received an overwhelming response, with more than 90 abstracts submitted. Copies of the abstracts will be soon be available for download from our Web.
Ten abstracts were selected to be presented at the Forum, and many more will be presented in poster form. Topics include:
• Integrated the Ecological Footprint into a “Footprint Family” of Indicators
• Interregional cap and Trade Using the Ecological Footprint
• Managing Trade with Ecological Footprint Analysis
• Ecological Footprint vs. Biocapacity of world regions: A Geopolitical Interpretation
“Amazonia is news. It concerns everyone,” award-winning online news service O Eco Amazonia writes on its Web site. In 2004, the O Eco Association was launched with the goal of providing decision-makers up-to-date information on this critical ecological region.
During the last five years, the Web site has grown into one of the most celebrated environmental news services in Brazil. Now, it has joined Global Footprint Network as a partner. Through the collaboration, O Eco will host a monthly column by Global Footprint Network on regional topics including the Ecological Footprint, sugarcane ethanol, the Brazilian Century, and “biocapacity issues: Mexico vs. Brazil.” The site will also feature the Brazilian personal Ecological Footprint calculator.
The Ontario Biodiversity Council (OBC), in conjunction with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, released its State of Ontario’s Biodiversity 2010 report last week, comprised of 29 indicators that provide the most comprehensive overview to date of the province’s natural environment and the pressures that must be addressed for what?.
More than one-third of the indicators in the Council’s report establish baselines of information for the first time, providing a reliable way to measure progress in the future. One of these indicators is the Ecological Footprint, which indicates pressure on biodiversity by measuring human demand on ecosystems.
In April, Hawai’i Preparatory Academy opened its new Energy Lab, a unique facility designed to educate and inspire students about the concepts of sustainable living. The opening was a fitting setting for the kickoff of another initiative: Footprint Futures, a program by Global Footprint Network and HPA in which high school students learn the principles of Ecological Footprint accounting.
Global Footprint Network’s most recent Ecological Footprint and biocapacity figures are presented, along with arresting images, quotes and graphics, in a new report: The Ecological Wealth of Nations: Earth’s biocapacity as a new framework for international cooperation. The report presents Ecological Footprint and biocapacity time series graphs for more than 100 nations and the world as a whole. It discusses the increasing role biocapacity will play in countries’ long-term health and their ability to provide a high quality of life for their citizens. The report was released during an event co-hosted by BioRegional on April 12 at BioRegional Quintain in London.
This morning opened the Footprint Forum 2010 conference in Colle di Val d’Elsa.
Leaders of government, business, and development agencies will be gathering along with leading scientists and academics to discuss current ecological trends and what they mean for long-term economic and regional competitiveness. Follow the discussions at the Forum on our blog, www.footprintnetwork.org/blog, where we will be reporting on the key issues from the conference.
A new video from Emirates Wildlife Society – WWF brings the concept of the Ecological Footprint to life, with animated newspaper cutouts that tell a colorful story about the effects of excessive resource consumption.
World leaders have failed to deliver commitments made in 2002 to reduce the global rate of biodiversity loss by 2010, and have instead overseen alarming declines in biodiversity. Such were the findings published this month in the leading journal Science, in an article co-authored by Global Footprint Network Senior Scientist Dr. Alessandro Galli.
The report represents the first assessment of how the targets made through the 2002 United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) have not been met. At that convention, the world’s governments vowed to halt the rate of species declines by 2010.
During the year and a half since French President Nicolas Sarkozy established the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress, it has focused on one challenge: How can we move beyond GDP to broader measures of a nation’s economic, social and environmental well-being?
Global Footprint Network applauds this effort and congratulates the Commission for taking a crucial step toward answering that question through its release of the Stiglitz Report. The report synthesizes the complex field of economic performance and social progress indicators and substantiates the voices of early pioneers like Hazel Henderson and Hermann Daly.
With this report, there is now wide agreement that humanity’s success in the 21st century depends largely on robust navigational tools. The report has built a productive platform for further discussions. However, there is still much work to do. The report points out that there is no consensus yet as to which indicators provide the greatest value, and how they should be applied in guiding public policy.
Hear Mathis Wackernagel discuss how the Ecological Footprint helps inform sustainable development and which countries are winning the game on this Living on Earth interview.
A front page article in the New York Times this week discusses how Gulf states are making a major push to be leaders of alternative energy. The article states that Abu Dhabi, a state of the United Arab Emirates, plans to invest $15 billion renewable energy – the same amount President-elect Obama has proposed investing in the entire United States.
It may seem strange that an oil-rich country like the United Arab Emirates – known for its energy-intensive lifestyle – should be a standard bearer for renewable fuels. But the UAE’s leaders have shown a far-sightedness in understanding the risks of their resource reliance. Yes, the United Arab Emirates narrowly surpasses the United States as having the world’s largest per capita Ecological Footprint.. But rather than being fearful and getting dismissive about their resource dependency, the UAE’s leaders have addressed this danger, through initiatives like its national Ecological Footprint Initiative (Al Basama Al Beeiya), with which it has been working with Global Footprint Network since 2007.
Such thinking is also driving the investment in alternative resources. Oil may have built the country’s wealth. But the only way to preserve it may be to lead the world on solar.
The crisis of 2008 represents something deeper than economic recession, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman says in a March 7 column. Economically and ecologically, we are hitting the wall.
In a world in which the traditional ways of valuing investments have proven less-than-reliable in recent months, Swiss investment firm Pictet Asset Management is gaining traction with a new type of bond fund: one which rates countries based on their ability to provide a high quality of life at a minimal ecological cost.
Global Footprint Network has launched the latest addition to its popular Ecological Footprint calculator with data specific to Switzerland. Click here to take the quiz.
Users walk an avatar through a Swiss countryside, answering questions about their consumption and lifestyle habits. At the end of the quiz they learn how much of the Earth’s resources it takes to support their lifestyle and what they can do to get closer to living within the means of our one planet. The Swiss version includes new, updated features to the Footprint calculator, including functionality in English .German, French and Italian languages.
The application was launched in partnership with WWF Switzerland as part of its campaign on environmental behavior, which for the past six years has featured the Ecological Footprint. This campaign has reached half a million people, and with the help of Global Footprint Network will now help the public understand their natural resource impact. According to WWF Switzerland, the calculator presents an attractive and illuminating tool that will engage people to optimize their every day behavior and reduce the Footprint. The Swiss calculator will be the first European dot on Global Footprint Network’s global calculator map.
For WWF Switzerland the footprint calculator is a valuable and attractive complementary tool that helps motivate people to participate in the various activities WWF Switzerland offers people to optimize their everyday behavior and reduce their Footprint.
Global Footprint Network is inviting corporate, government, and NGO partners to help expand the calculator to include additional features and locations. Please contact Meredith Stechbart, meredith@footprintnetwork.org, if you would like to be involved or would like the calculator customized for your organization.
Global Footprint Network will join hundreds of NGOs, businesses, government leaders and citizens at Climate Week NY˚C this September, calling on world leaders to secure an ambitious, fair and binding global deal in Copenhagen. Climate Week NY˚C is a series of high-level meetings, panel discussions, cultural events and public engagements to address and underscore the urgency for action on climate change.
Climate Week, which runs September 19 to 26, was born out of the recognition that, for one week in September, New York City will play host to important events seventy days prior to the UN Climate Change Conference (COP15) in Copenhagen on December 7-18. These events include:
- UN Secretary-General’s day long summit on Climate Change
- Carbon Disclosure Projects’ 2009 report release
- Clinton Global Initiative
The weeklong series of events is a partnership between The Climate Group, United Nations, UN Foundation,City of New York, the tcktcktck campaign and Carbon Disclosure Project.
As part of the Climate Week program, Global Footprint Network’s Executive Director Mathis Wackernagel will present a lecture at New York University exploring the link between the Ecological Footprint and Climate Change, and how the Footprint framework can provide the strategic motive for government action. The lecture is free and open to the public. Click here for details.
The Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress — created by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and chaired by Nobel Prize winning-economist Professor Joseph E. Stiglitz of Columbia University – has recently issued a report with recommendations on how to find a more comprehensive approach toward gauging a country’s success, beyond Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Among the indicators mentioned was the Ecological Footprint, marking an important milestone. Global Footprint Network praises its members for this valuable work and confirms their call for more biophysical indicators. Please join us in sending comments on the report and its findings, and recommending that the Ecological Footprint be a part of a micro-dashboard of economic performance and social progress indicators, please .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) here.
Global Footprint Network has launched versions of its Web site in German, French, and Spanish, with versions in Portuguese and Italian version to go live this month, and plans to add Japanese and Arabic by the end of the year. Users simply go to the language bar at the top of the home page and select the version they wish to view.
As a measure of economic performance, GDP should be relegated to the “dustbin of history,” says Eric Zencey in a New York Times Op Ed. Among its liabilities, the indicator fails to place adequate value on ecological services, Zencey says, which are are less expensive than built capital services yet in the long term far more essential to human well-being (not to mention other species). Basing policy on GDP has caused us to pursue a perverse strategy of replacing the efficient and often free services offered by nature (such as sun-drying of clothes, propogation of fish and natural flood control) with resource- and cost-intensive industrial services (such as machine drying of clothes, fish farms, and levees and dams) that liquidate our natural wealth.
CNN’s Josh Levs observed Earth Day by taking Global Footprint Network’s Ecological Footprint quiz on national television. “This is one of the best features that we discovered this week on Earth Day,” he says, as he walks viewers through the quiz, answering questions and determining how many planets it takes to support his lifestyle. (Answer: 4.8)
The past year has been a challenging one for the world, filled with environmental news such as soaring food prices and climate change impacts that reflect the growing human and economic costs of overshoot. But it has also been a year in which the global community has truly begun to mobilize to meet our ecological challenges. Read about the work Global Footprint Network is doing on almost every continent to take advantage of this critical moment and push the shift toward a sustainable world economy.
Data on resource limits will be the critical intelligence for the 21st century, Mathis and Susan say in a Global X interview sponsored by the Skoll World Forum. The two discuss why they launched Global Footprint Network. “Our work is so much data driven, and yet it’s so much about life,” Susan says. “And it’s not about future generations anymore. It’s about my life, our son’s life,” Mathis reflects.
Global Footprint Network has launched the latest addition to its popular Ecological Footprint calculator with data specific to Calgary, Canada. Click here to take the quiz.
Global Footprint Network is pleased to announce the release of the Ecological Footprint Standards 2009. This document builds on the first set of internationally recognized Ecological Footprint Standards, released in 2006, and includes key updates – such as, for the first time, providing guidelines and standards for product and organizational Footprint assessments.
The Standards have been designed to ensure that Footprint analyses are produced consistently and according to community-proposed best practices. They aim to certify that assessments are conducted and communicated in a way that is accurate and transparent, by providing Standards and Guidelines on such issues as use of source data, derivation of conversion factors, establishment of study boundaries, and communication of findings. The Standards are applicable to all Footprint studies, including sub-national populations, products, and organizations. Global Footprint Network asks that all Partners comply with the most recent Ecological Footprint Standards, in order to promote the quality and integrity of Ecological Footprint Accounting.
The Natural Step, an international non-profit dedicated to education, advisory work and research in sustainable development, has joined Global Footprint Network as a Partner. The Natural Step Framework provides a comprehensive, science-based definition of sustainability and links it to real world applications.
A recent issue of Ecological Economics (Vol. 68, Issue 7), the journal of the International Society of Ecological Economics, features a special section on Ecological Footprint analysis. Edited by Global Footprint Network President Mathis Wackernagel, the issue focuses on advancements in Footprint methodology and includes articles by Global Footprint Network research staff and partners. Aticles include a proposed method for incorporating methane into Ecological Footprint analysis, a comparison of Ecological Footprint and water footprint analysis, and a research agenda for improving the National Footprint Accounts. Click here to see a preview of the issue.
Costa Rica tops the list of countries able to provide long and happy lives for its citizens on a low Ecological Footprint, according to the Happy Planet Index, released this month by nef (the new economics foundation), a Global Footprint Network partner. Created as an alternative yardstick to economic-growth based measures of social progress, the Happy Planet Index (HPI) is designed to measure the ecological efficiency with which countries provide a high quality of life for their citizens.
Environmentalist Peter Seidel, who has authored two non-fiction books dealing with human demand on nature, takes a different approach for exploring the consequences of ecological consumption with a new novel out in paperback, 2045: A Vision of Our Future.
The biannual meeting of the 
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