Global Outlook On The Environment
Economic-environmental projections show that world greenhouse gas emissions are expected to grow by 37% to 2030 and by 52% to 2050 if no new policy action is introduced. To meet increasing demands for food and biofuels world agricultural land use will need to expand by an estimated 10% to 2030; 1 billion more people will be living in areas of severe water stress by 2030 than today; and premature deaths caused by ground-level ozone worldwide would quadruple by 2030.
With inaction, we risk irreversibly damaging the environment and the natural resource base needed to support economic growth and well-being. The costs of inaction are high, but tackling the key environmental problems we face today – including climate change, biodiversity loss, water scarcity and the impact on human health of pollution and toxic chemicals – is both achievable and affordable.
The OECD Environmental Outlook projects that world GDP will almost double by 2030. And the OECD policy simulation shows that it would cost just over 1% of that growth to implement policies that can cut key air pollutants by about a third, and contain greenhouse gas emissions to about 12% instead of 37% growth under the scenario without new policies.
Besides governmental efforts such as the use of green taxes, efficient water pricing, emissions trading, polluter-pay systems, waste charges, and eliminating environmentally harmful subsidies (e.g. for fossil fuels and agriculture), corporations can also play a part by investing in research and development.
Here at Enviro-Hub, environmental challenges have created opportunities for our growth. We strongly believe that technological developments will also contribute to the environmental solution, but that the generalised application of breakthrough technologies poses important challenges in the area of intellectual property rights which will have to be confronted. We focus on providing these technology and solutions to overcome the environmental challenges, but we cannot accomplish it alone.
Join us and do your part today! Together, let's restore the environment!
