The availability of natural resources was in the center of attention during a workshop by Ms Irene Monasterolo, hosted by EuCham. On 28 June 2013, Ms Monasterolo (Rural and Regional Development Consultant, The World Bank; Research Fellow in Sustainable Development, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge) discussed the importance of modelling the impact of resources constraints on growth.
Currently, we live in a compelling and challenging world, in which it is rather difficult to combine both economic and environmentally sustainable targets into business. Also policy makers find it hard to develop sustainable policies, as governments usually prefer to see short term results. This is why the Global Resources Observatory is doing research on sustainable scenarios, to assist policy makers in creating a balance between their short term vision and the long term models they currently try to follow.
However, it is not easy to assume one scenario as data sets are not compatible on an international level. Therefore, the GRO model has a short term focus and moves away from empirical evidence. On top of that, a “debt map” has been created which sets out the country reserves versus the annual consumption.
By not only measuring GDP, but also prosperity growth and keeping track on the Better Life Index, the GRO hopes to positively contribute to policymaking in the area of climate change. Ms Monasterolo furthermore discussed several ambitious programs such as the EU 2020 goals, however she detected that there is a problem of a lack of proper targeting on all levels and usually these kind of policies do not have any impact on influential countries such as China and the USA. A shocking statistic was then revealed that in 2016 an expected temperature rise is expected of between 2-5 degrees. However, after research and modelling Ms Monasterolo found that even if we become completely sustainable with zero-emissions, we can still expect a 1 degree increase in the the Earth’s temperature by 2016.
Finally, Ms Monasterolo stressed on the urgency of the issue, as a scarcity of resources leads to high food prices and could have political instability as a consequence. An example of this is the Arab Spring, where for instance the high bread prices in Egypt led to a lot of demonstrations and a politically unstable society. She also claimed that if businesses continue with the contemporary economic growth pattern, this will lead to an intensified environmental pressure, higher prices and therefore regional conflicts and the Earth would ran out of resources in only 50 years.
A lively discussion followed the workshop and once more the conclusion was that environmental sustainability should be a top priority for both businesses and policy makers.
Presentation available for downloading (downloads > EuCham events)