Study blames rich countries for 74 percent of world’s ecological harm

New environmental research has blamed the wealthiest countries – led by the US and the European Union – for almost three-quarters of the world’s ecological damage.

Authors of the study -- who assigned responsibility by calculating fair shares of resources, subtracted from nations’ actual use of resources -- found the US led with 27 percent of excess resource use, followed by the EU with 25 percent, according to the research released earlier this month in the UK-based Lancet Planetary Health journal.

“These results indicate that rich countries owe an ecological debt to the rest of the world, and should lead the way in repairing the damages they have caused,” said the study’s lead author Jason Hickel, a professor at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology in Barcelona, as quoted in a report by the Washington-based The Hill.

“The first step is that they need to bring their resource use back within sustainable levels, which will require a 70-percent reduction on average from existing levels,” Hickel underlined.

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China, which is blamed by the research for being the overall largest emitter of greenhouse gases worldwide, was further assigned responsibility for 15 percent of excess material use.

This is while nations in regions such as the Caribbean and the Middle East, as well as impoverished African and Latin American nations, collectively comprised only eight percent of excess resource use. 

The study covered ecological damage other than climate change, though Hickel noted that his team had done prior research indicating similar breakdowns in responsibility, insisting: “When it comes to both of these crises, rich countries are overwhelmingly responsible for the problem and need to take the lead in addressing it.”

As to what an international plan to address such disparities should look like, Hickel described the European Union’s legislation to cap resource use as “a big step.”

He further emphasized, however, that other rich countries must join the effort, saying, “We also need the US on board, as well as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and other rich countries, if we want to see real change.”

“China should be part of such a coalition as well,” he added. “People talk a lot about climate legislation and climate policy, which is important, but we need similar action on resource use if we are going to halt biodiversity loss and regenerate our biosphere.” 

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