023 | SUSTAINABILITY: AN INTRODUCTION
"If 7 billion people were to consume as much energy and resources as we do in the West today we would need 10 worlds, not one, to satisfy all our needs"
Gro Harlem Brundtland
Global and regional ecological limits are already being exceeded. Developed countries are the main culprits. Their one billion inhabitants - about 20% of the world population - use 80% of the fossil fuels, metals, wood, minerals and other resources that are extracted every year. Despite increasing the efficiency with which we use these resources, our total consumption of them is still growing. Some pollution has been cut in certain developed countries, but pollution and landscape destruction are generally growing in the countries where our resources are extracted or produced.
If the developing countries come to consume in the same wasteful manner as the developed countries, global resouce use will increase eight-fold while population only doubles. If the developing countries remain poor - an undesirable prospect - the same doubling of world population would just add a quarter to global resource consumption. The level of resource use per capita is crucial in determining whether a consumption pattern is sustainable. We cannot enforce poverty on billions of people for the sake of the planet and to avoid substantial changes in the western lifestyle. There is a better way.
What alternative is there to satisfy both developing countries and today's consumers? How can we avoid environmental problems and increase quality of life? We in Europe have the material, intellectual and human wealth to take on this challenge.
The challenge of the 21st century will be to become more environmentally sustainable -- keeping within environmental limits, and more socially sustainable by improving wellbeing for all, despite, or even because of reduced consumption of resources.