Global Resources Outlook 2024

Australian research plays a key role in shaping the United Nations Environment Programme’s International Resource Panel’s Flagship Report: The Global Resources Outlook 2024.

The challenge

Globally, resource consumption exceeds 100 billion tonnes of materials each year. This includes biomass, fossil fuels, metal ores and non-metallic minerals obtained from mining, quarrying, agriculture, forestry and fisheries. If the world continues its current trajectory the global economy is expected to demand around 160 billion tonnes of materials by 2060. The current patterns of material use are driving the triple planetary crisis: climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.

How can we bend the curve of ever-increasing material consumption and its associated environmental toll through ambitious and well-designed policies for resource efficiency, greenhouse gas abatement and waste and pollution reduction?

Our response

We are leading an international collaboration of research institutes to develop comprehensive global datasets for the International Resource Panel’s (IRP) Global Resources Outlook. This project compiled detailed records of material use, greenhouse gas emissions, water, and land use across every nation over the past 50 years.

By tracking both direct material use and the broader material footprints of crucial materials, sectors, and products, we can categorise them under essential provision systems: housing, mobility, food, and energy. This approach helps us dissect and understand the material requirements of human wellbeing across different countries, within seven major world regions, and among four distinct income groups.

This includes forecasting future material demands, setting up two distinct scenarios for analysis: the ‘Historical Trends’ baseline and an alternative ‘Sustainability Scenario.’ The latter investigates the extent to which policy initiatives can mitigate environmental pressures while still achieving substantial human well-being outcomes, along with significantly reduced environmental costs.

Impact

The Global Resources Outlook 2024 marks the second edition of the flagship report by the UNEP International Resource Panel (IRP), launched at the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) in Nairobi, March 2024.

Esteemed as the authoritative resource for global material use data, the IRP has gained recognition alongside prominent science-policy panels such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.

This follows the inaugural publication of the Global Resources Outlook in 2019, setting a precedent for comprehensive environmental analysis and policy guidance.