16 Aug 2016
Policy Brief // Economic Growth and Resource Use: Exploring the Links
By Janez Sušnik (UNESCO-IHE). This policy brief aims at exploring the relationship between GDP and GDP-per-capita with the resource metrics and projected resource use related to water, food and energy till the year 2100.
In 2013 about one billion people lacked access to safe drinking water, and in 2006 over 2.5 billion lacked reasonable levels of sanitation. Likewise, about 840 million people are chronically malnourished (World Hunger, 2010) and approximately one billion lack access to a reliable electricity supply. In a fast growing world, population is projected to reach over nine billion people by 2050 and to meet the expected increase in demand for water, food and energy efforts to improve lifestyles must be more efficient.
- Historically, there is no denying the fact that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and resource use are correlated. But an important question that arises is: What could be the resource use trend for the future with the developing GDP?
- Should there be policies aiming to either restrict future GDP growth to minimise resource use or decouple GDP and recent resource use growth trends?