Environmental transformation benefits can reach $20trn annually by 2070

Planetary degradation is intensifying across all systems, threatening achievement of international sustainability goals and human well-being despite multiple pathways existing for transformational change, says UNEP's report

- BY ABDULAZIZ KHATTAK

The Earth's interconnected environmental systems are deteriorating at unprecedented rates, driven by escalating human pressures that now threaten the planet's capacity to sustain life and support equitable development.

The global population expanded from 3 billion in 1960 to 8 billion by 2022, whilst global gross domestic product surged from $9.14 trillion to $93.35 trillion over the same period, creating demands for goods and services that exceed planetary boundaries.

According to the United Nations Environment Programme's seventh edition of the Global Environment Outlook (GEO-7) assessment report, four interconnected global environmental crises: Climate change, biodiversity loss and land degradation, desertification, and pollution and waste, are simultaneously intensifying, creating cascading effects across terrestrial, marine, freshwater, and atmospheric systems.

Anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions reached nearly 60 gigatonnes of CO₂ equivalent in 2023, with 79 per cent originating from energy, industrial processes, transport, and buildings, whilst 22 per cent derived from agriculture, forestry, and land-use change.

Average global surface temperature for 2014-2023 increased by 1.19 deg C above the 1850-1900 baseline, with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirming 2024 as the hottest year on record, exceeding the 1.5 deg C threshold.

The ten years between 2015 and 2024 represent the warmest period since records began in 1850, with polar regions warming considerably faster than the global mean.

Marine systems have absorbed approximately 25 per cent of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, resulting in ocean acidification that increased by 26 per cent as pH decreased from 8.11 in 1985 to 8.05 in 2021.

Global mean sea level rose by an average of 0.20 metres over the period 1901 to 2018, with the rate accelerating to 3.7 millimetres annually for 2006-2018.