Climate Change And Resource Scarcity

Climate change and resource scarcity by Dennis Nally

As the world becomes more populous, urbanised and prosperous, demand for energy, food and water will rise. But our planet’s natural resources to satisfy this demand are finite.

Just how finite is becoming increasingly clear. At current rates of consumption, we may have just half a century’s worth of oil and gas left. Yet to meet our development needs, we’re highly dependent on fossil fuels which in turn drive carbon emissions. That’s why we look set to miss the carbon target to keep temperature rises to 2°C by 2034.

The impact of our economic development model is amplified by the linkage between climate change and resource scarcity. Our resulting projection could lead to either of two extreme outcomes: a policy shock, with a global agreement that severely penalises carbon emissions; or a climate or resource shock, where a natural event causes massive environmental and economic damage.