UN warns of $5B-hourly environmental damage from food, fossil fuel production

The unsustainable production of food and fossil fuels is responsible for causing $5 billion per-hour environmental cost, as warned by the UN’s new report.

According to the Global Environment Outlook (GEO) report, developed by 200 researchers for the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP), climate change, environmental pollution, and destruction of nature are not the only threats to the environment.

Prof Robert Watson, the co-chair of the assessment said, “They are all undermining our economy, food security, water security, human health and they are also [national] security issues, leading to conflict in many parts of the world.”

“This is an urgent call to transform our human systems now before collapse becomes inevitable,” said Prof Edgar Gutiérrez-Espeleta, another co-chair and the former environment minister in Costa Rica.

With the increasing global population, the environmental crises are exacerbating due to high demand for food and fuel.

According to experts, it is possible to build a sustainable world, but for this to happen political courage, the global transformation of governance and finance are the need of the hour, “before collapse becomes inevitable.”

“Science is good. The solutions are known. What is required is the courage to act at the scale and speed that history demands,” Gutiérrez-Espeleta said, adding that the window for action was “rapidly closing”.

The report also mentioned the biggest losses, including $45 trillion damage caused by burning of fossil fuels. The food system also caused the biggest costs at $20 trillion.

As per report, to tackle climate change, fossil fuel subsidies should be removed, leading to a cut in emissions by a third.