Scary Facts

Interesting facts:

Putting a Price on Global Environmental Damage

6 October 2010

By Principles For Responsible Investment

in 2008, the 'top 3000 public companies were responsible for $2, 15 trillion worth of environmental damage.' They were 'responsible for one third or $2, 15 trillion worth of all global environmental damage.' 

By 2050 the estimated cost for global environmrntal damage is $28 trillion

In 2008 the damage caused by human activity to the global environment 'represented a monetary value of $6,6 trillion.' This equates to 11% of the global gross domestic products (GDP).

'The most environmentally damaging business sectors are: Utilities; oil and gas producers; and industrial metals and mining'- they accounted for less than a trillion $ worth of harm to the environment in 2008. 

'The study projects that the monetary value of annual environmental damage from water and air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, general waste and depleted resources could reach $28.6 trillion in 2050, or 23% lower if clean and resource- efficient technologies are introduced.'

Cohesive policy and regulation is required to fully account for externalities and speed up the integration of material environmental issues into investment decisions. The bottom line is that if we are to achieve a sustainable global economy, then we must stop drawing down our natural capital." 

Paul Clements-Hunt, Executive Director, UNEP Finance Initiative

Source :http://www.unpri.org/files/uop_press_release_final.pdf

"From competition among hunter-gatherers for wild game to imperialist wars over precious minerals, resource wars have been fought throughout history; today, however, the competition appears set to enter a new—and perhaps unprecedented—phase. As natural resources deplete, and as the Earth’s climate becomes less stable, the world’s nations will likely compete ever more desperately for access to fossil fuels, minerals, agricultural land, and water" (2012).

United State of America:

"Unconventional hydrocarbon resources (such as natural gas liberated by the hydrofracking of shale deposits) are beginning to be commercialized, but come with high investment costs and worrisome environmental risks. U.S. extraction rates for many minerals have been declining for years or decades, and currently the nation imports 93 percent of its antimony, 100 percent of its bauxite (for aluminum), 31 percent of its copper, 99 percent of its gallium, 100 percent of its indium, over half its lithium, and 100 percent of its rare earth minerals" (2012).

China:

"China is the rising power of the 21st century, according to many geopolitical pundits, with a surging military and plentiful cash with which to buy access to resources (oil, coal, minerals, and farmland) around the planet. Yet while it is building an imperial-class navy that could eventually threaten America’s, Beijing suffers from domestic political and economic weaknesses that could make its turn at the center of the world stage a brief one. These include limits to available coal resources, a domestic real estate bubble, weakness in its banking sector, falling demand for Chinese exports in the U.S. and Europe, and widespread local political corruption" (2012).

Africa:

"Africa is a site of fast-growing U.S. investment in oil and other mineral extraction projects (as evidenced by the establishment in 2009 of Africom, a military strategic command center on par with Centcom, Eucom, Northcom, Pacom, and Southcom), but the continent also a target of Chinese (and European) resource acquisition efforts. Proxy conflicts there between and among these powers may intensify in the years ahead—in most instances, to the sad detriment of African peoples" (2012).