It is both possible and affordable to overcome the major environmental challenges of today, ranging from climate change to water scarcity. At least this is what the recently published OECD Environmental Outlook to 2030 claims. The Outlook analyzes the impacts of economic and social developments on the global environment based on key economic and environmental trends. If no new policies are adopted, damage to the environment and natural resource foundation could be irreversible and entail high costs. The impacts of political idleness are clearly illustrated in projections about exacerbated water scarcity as a result of the non-sustainable use of this resource and climate change. In the BRIC countries alone, i.e. Brazil, Russia, India and China, the percentage of people affected by acute water scarcity will increase by one third to reach 2.3 billion by 2030. That would comprise almost a third of the projected world population in 2030. In addition to taking stock of environmental challenges, the report also focuses on the required policy actions. The OECD applies a hypothetical global policy package to demonstrate that ambitious environmental protection measures are also financially viable. The same holds true for security policy, as demonstrated in a newly published policy paper by the Institute for Development and Peace (INEF). The paper deals with the consequences of growing water scarcity and develops recommendations for international cooperation to prevent or manage potential conflicts over this scarce resource. The author, Annabelle Houdret, suggests measures to enhance conflict prevention, among them the need to constructively engage the private sector in finding solutions so as to ensure the sustainability of environmental and technical investments. (Anja Wittich)

An executive summary of the OECD Environmental Outlook can be accessed at:

www.oecd.org/environment/outlookto2030

INEF Policy Brief 3/2008: http://inef.uni-due.de/page/documents/PolicyBrief03.pdf

 

 

Published in: ECC-Newsletter, April 2008