[guide.chat] news world running out of food
- From: vanessa <qwerty1234567a@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "GUIDE CHAT" <guide.chat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:55:13 -0000
As population soars, world lacks food
Reuters Jan 31, 2012 ? 10:58 AM ET
LONDON ? The world is running out of time to make sure there is enough food,
water and energy to meet the needs of a rapidly growing population and to avoid
sending up to 3 billion people into poverty, a U.N. report has warned.
As the world?s population looks set to grow to nearly 9 billion by 2040 from 7
billion now, and the number of middle-class consumers increases by 3 billion
over the next 20 years, the demand for resources will rise exponentially.
Even by 2030, the world will need at least 50% more food, 45% more energy and
30% more water, according to U.N. estimates, at a time when a changing
environment is creating new limits to supply.
And if the world fails to tackle these problems, it risks condemning up to 3
billion people into poverty, the report said.
Efforts towards sustainable development are neither fast enough nor deep
enough, as well as suffering from a lack of political will, the United Nations?
high-level panel on global sustainability said.
?The current global development model is unsustainable. To achieve
sustainability, a transformation of the global economy is required,? the report
said.
?Tinkering on the margins will not do the job. The current global economic
crisis ? offers an opportunity for significant reforms.?
Although the number of people living in absolute poverty has been reduced to
27% of world population from 46% in 1990 and the global economy has grown 75%
since 1992, improved lifestyles and changing consumer habits have put natural
resources under increasing strain.
There are 20 million more undernourished people now than in 2000; 5.2 million
hectares of forest are lost per year ? an area the size of Costa Rica; 85% of
all fish stocks are over-exploited or depleted; and carbon dioxide emissions
have risen 38% between 1990 and 2009, which heightens the risk of sea level
rise and more extreme weather.
The panel, which made 56 recommendations for sustainable development to be
included in economic policy as quickly as possible, said a ?new political
economy? was needed.
?Let?s use the upcoming Rio+20 summit to kick off this global transition
towards a sustainable growth model for the 21st century that the world so badly
needs,? EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said in response to the
report, referring to a U.N. sustainable development summit this June in Brazil.
Among the panel?s recommendations, it urged governments to agree on a set of
sustainable development goals which would complement the eight Millennium
Development Goals to 2015 and create a framework for action after 2015.
They should work with international organizations to create an ?evergreen
revolution,? which would at least double productivity while reducing resource
use and avoiding further biodiversity losses, the report said.
Water and marine ecosystems should be managed more efficiently and there should
be universal access to affordable sustainable energy by 2030.
To make the economy more sustainable, carbon and natural resource pricing
should be established through taxation, regulation or emissions trading schemes
by 2020 and fossil fuel subsidies should also be phased out by that time.
National fiscal and credit systems should be reformed to provide long-term
incentives for sustainable practices as well as disincentives for unsustainable
ones.
Sovereign wealth and public pension funds, as well as development banks and
export credit agencies should apply sustainable development criteria to their
investment decisions, and governments or stock market watchdogs should revise
regulations to encourage their use.
Governments and scientists should also strengthen the relationship between
policy and science by regularly examining the science behind environmental
thresholds or ?tipping points? and the United Nations should consider naming a
chief scientific adviser or board to advise the organization, the report said.
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