State of Africa's Environment Report 2023

October 04, 2023

Wealth is increasing in the world but will not be sustainable in countries that have degraded their natural environment or capital. The world is busy at negotiating carbon budget to mitigate climate change. A similar and equally critical debate is unfolding on another front: Can we control the use of natural resources? It is also related to the consumption that is at the centre of the climate change debate. Like carbon budget, use of natural resources is also an issue of development and the right to it, even if it means breaching the sustainable level. Like in the climate change debate, in this case as well there is a sharp division between the developed and the developing and poor countries. Taking the similarity further, in case of natural resource consumption as well, the developed countries are obsessive consumers while the developing and poor countries just use them for survival. So, the contentious question is: How to approach this fundamental use of resource debate?