Living Within Environmental Limits

Purpose

This Policy Position Statement (PPS) sets out CIWEM’s position on the importance of addressing current levels of consumption and moving towards living within environmental limits in the UK.

CIWEM calls for:

1. The Government to deliver on its 2005 Sustainable Development Strategy ‘Securing the Future’.
2. A demonstrable commitment by the Government to align all aspects of the UK economy, including its population, with the principle of living within environmental limits.
3. An end to the presumption that economic growth is essential for a successful society, with environmental health and societal wellbeing afforded greater status in this respect.
4. An urgent and informed public debate on sustainable human population movement and growth for the UK using independent research and data which also measures the impact of people’s lifestyles on the environment, and considers issues such as faith, cultural attitudes and migration.
5. Independent research on the impacts of human population movement and growth on the environment and its contribution to climate change. 
6. The Sustainable Development Commission to monitor and report on the impact of population and people’s lifestyles on the environment, such information being essential to planning and evolving communities and to planning for action on climate change.
7. The Government to review its policies and activities relating to population growth as a tool for economic growth and to take more seriously the environmental impacts of a population in breach of environmental limits.  
8. Research into the definition and measurement of working limits on environmental impacts in areas which will allow meaningful improvements in the environmental impacts of the UK population.
9. Wider public education regarding reproduction and fertility, in all areas of society, and provision of free family planning support to all.
10. Wider education, especially in schools, regarding the environmental impacts of the UK’s consumer culture, with a focus on more needs-based living.

The Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM) is the leading professional body for the people who plan, protect and care for the environment and its resources, providing educational opportunities, independent information to the public and advice to government. Members in 98 countries include scientists, engineers, ecologists and students.
 
Context

One third of all humans who have ever lived are alive today. The Global population is currently 6.7 billion and is predicted to rise to around 9 billion people by 2050.  Over the past 200 years populations have risen dramatically (globally from around 1 billion in 1800) as improved public health and industrialisation driven by the harnessing of energy from fossil fuels has lead to significant increase in life expectancy in many nations.   The UK population is currently around 60.5 million people.  In October 2007 the Office for National Statisticsⁱ  projected that the UK population would increase to 65 million by 2016 and reach 71 million by 2031.  The justification for these projections lies with natural increase (births outnumbering deaths) and net inward migration.  

In many cases this increased life expectancy and prosperity has run side by side with increased use and manipulation of natural resources.  This trend has been particularly marked in the industrialised ‘western’ world.  The UK’s population consumes more resources than can be produced sustainably.  This way of life is maintained by importing and using resources from other countries, in some cases to the detriment of the people and the environment in producing areas, and drawing heavily on non-renewable resources.

A measure of the impact of a population is its ecological footprint. That of the UK extends beyond its borders and is unsustainable.  The Sustainable Development Commission statesⁱⁱ : “If everyone in the world consumed at the average rate we do in the UK, we would require three planets”.

The UK Government’s 2005 sustainable development strategy, ‘Securing the Future’ noted that increased consumption in conjunction with rising population caused increasing environmental problems, and recommended that the UK should live within environmental limits. The then Prime Minister Tony Blair said: “Each of us needs to make the right choices to secure a future that is fairer, where we can all live within our environmental limits.” 

Living within environmental limits is defined in ‘Securing the Future’ as: “Respecting the limits of the planet’s environment, resources and biodiversity – to improve our environment and ensure that the natural resources needed for life are unimpaired and remain so for future generations.”  This is set within the context of natural resource protection within this strategy.

The Sustainable Development Commission  statesⁱⁱⁱ “any indicator of progress (that wasn’t itself a measure of environmental limits) should be seen in the context of environmental limits.  An economy or society operating outside environmental limits cannot be seen as sustainable.”

Discussion of Key Issues

CIWEM considers there are four key issues to address regarding living within environmental limits: (1) Resource consumption; (2) The environmental impacts of consumption and consumer culture; (3) Population size and growth and (4) The location of populations.

Resource use must be maintained at a sustainable level
Put simply, resource use may be considered as what we take from the environment.  Some resources are renewable, others are not.  Many renewable resources such as plant and fish populations are only so if managed properly, i.e. their exploitation is within certain limits.  Consideration of how our activities fit within the context of ecological limits is known as an ‘ecosystems approach’.

According to WWF^iv , mankind is using about 20% more resources than the planet can sustain in the long term, and humanity’s ecological footprint has more than tripled since 1961.  This resource consumption is by no means evenly spread throughout the world.  The Sustainable Development Commission recommends that the UK’s environmental wellbeing should be measured using the carbon footprint of consumption.  With this in mind, Fig. 1 shows roughly the variation of resource consumption globally via per capita carbon emissions.  This data clearly shows that the ‘developed’ world has far higher per capita levels of carbon emissions, and thus consumption, than the rest of the world.  In the UK context, we are consuming approximately three times more resources than is ‘our fair share’, and display characteristics of a materialistic, consumer culture, which is completely unsustainable.

Fig. 1
CARBON EMISSIONS PER CAPITA, 1999


World Resources Institute 2001

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) was undertaken over a four-year period leading up to 2005 by 1300 researchers from 95 nations and is the most comprehensive report into the state of the Planet. The report of the Board of the MA  raised a number of key points, which included^v:
• Everyone in the world depends on nature and ecosystem services to provide the conditions for a decent, healthy, and secure life.
• Humans have made unprecedented changes to ecosystems in recent decades to meet growing demands for food, fresh water, fibre, and energy.
• These changes have helped to improve the lives of billions, but at the same time they weakened nature’s ability to deliver other key services such as purification of air and water, protection from disasters, and the provision of medicines.
It also states that pressures on ecosystems will increase unless human attitudes and actions change, and nearly two thirds of the services provided by nature to mankind are in decline, because of our actions.

In order that we in the UK live within environmental limits, the Government must act on its stated aim from its 2005 sustainable development strategy.  There must be concerted efforts to significantly increase resource efficiency, particularly in areas such as transport, energy (heating and electricity) and water.  Recycling of materials also saves energy and uses fewer raw materials.  Public attitudes towards consumption must be modified so that there is less glamour attached to materialistic and highly consumptive lifestyles, with greater value attached to a more needs-based approach to living.  This represents a very significant challenge, and it is likely that one of the most effective ways of engendering more responsible attitudes to consumption is to include education on this issue in the national curriculum.

Environmental Impacts
All activities of mankind have impacts on the environment.  Some such impacts may be quite benign.  Much resource use however is associated with environmental degradation such as pollution or physical destruction of ecosystems, e.g. deforestation for the creation of agricultural land or for logging.  The environment is able to cope with, and reprocess many forms of pollution, and ecosystems may regenerate with appropriate careful management regimes.  However, the extent of contemporary resource exploitation is such that many ecosystems and environmental processes are under stress from pollution and physical destruction.

Perhaps the pollutant attracting most attention presently is carbon dioxide (CO2), which is one of the main by-products of the combustion of fossil fuels.  In the context of Climate Change the Global Commons Institute^vi proposed the system of Contraction and Convergence, which provides a mechanism for tackling climate change in an equitable manner and its principle could be extended to wider environmental pollution and resource exploitation quota systems.

If we are to live within environmental limits it is essential that not only do we understand and limit, where appropriate, the way we exploit resources, but we also understand and manage the impacts of that exploitation in terms of pollution and other impacts.

Where we live
Living within environmental limits is not solely about resource use.  The concentration of populations in set locations, e.g. large cities means that populations are less mobile and adaptable, and potentially more vulnerable to environmental change – some of which may be exacerbated by mankind’s resource use and pollution.  Projections of likely future climate change indicate that this may become an increasing issue.

In the UK, attention has recently focussed on the proportion of the population at risk of flooding either on river floodplains or from coastal erosion and sea level rise.  It is essential to understand that certain environmental phenomena cannot be prevented and associated risks to human populations eliminated.  It is therefore necessary to understand at what point human activity should be limited in a given location because of the existence of environmental hazards, which can only be managed to a certain extent.  Appropriate planning and decision-making frameworks should be put in place to ensure that populations are not put at undue risk because of the existence of environmental phenomena.  In the global context it is projected that by 2025, 2.75 billion people will be exposed to coastal threats associated with climate change such as sea level rise or stronger hurricanes because of the ongoing trend of development near the coast.

Population
Although the UK is small geographically it does have a comparatively large population that represents 1% of the global population.  Whilst this is a small number in the global context, the rate of consumption of this population is significantly above the global average, and the per capita rates of carbon dioxide emissions mirror this.  CIWEM considers that when tackling climate change and other environmental degradation, and in attempting to deliver sustainable development, rates of consumption (resource use) and pollution are crucial and are reflected in Government policies to tackle the environmental challenges we face.  However, CIWEM believes that population size is also a highly relevant factor in this situation and must be brought into the debate.  CIWEM asserts that action on climate change and sustainable development – at both local and global levels – cannot take place in a meaningful way without a proper analysis and discussion of the effects of population growth.  This is an emotive and difficult issue to debate, but nevertheless it is a debate which must be had.

‘Securing the Future’, states that: “The demands made on natural resources continue to grow as people’s desire to consume more is coupled with a rise in population.”  CIWEM welcomes the recognition of this link, yet we are concerned that the strategy goes no further in terms of stating whether the rise in population should be tackled as part of living within environmental limits. 

In terms of projected future housing growth, the Department for Communities and Local Government^vii attributes 131,000 of the projected 223,000 new homes required annually to 2026 to population growth. 33 percent of the growth is attributable to inward migration.  These are clearly key factors, the impacts of which must be taken into greater consideration.

CIWEM is concerned that Government must recognise that while a large population may bring benefits of wealth creation during periods of economic growth through employment, the population must be recognised as something other than economic units contributing to gross domestic product (GDP). Large, unsustainable populations when allied to high levels of consumption cause environmental degradation and contribute to climate change, and both these factors must be addressed.

That there is both evidence and a consensus on the negative impact of the UK population on the environment makes it surprising – and a concern - that there is little enthusiasm for a public debate on such a serious issue. And even though such concern has been expressed by the Chair of the Sustainable Development Commission, Jonathon Porritt, the UK Government has shown no sign that population will be deemed worthy of investigation or form any part of action on climate change.  This despite recognition in the Government’s own Sustainable Development Strategy that population is an issue relevant to sustainable development and living within environmental limits. CIWEM believes that this wrong, and that at a time of dire predictions on human induced climate change, the issue of population is a priority and a legitimate area of investigation.

May 2008

Useful References
The Ecologist, April 2007.

World Commission on Environment and Development 1987 Our Common Future.

Defra, UK Strategy for Sustainable Development: Securing the Future, 2005.

Defra, Draft Climate Change Bill, March 2007.

Optimum Population Trust, www.optimumpopulationtrust.org.

Population Communications International (PCI), www.population.org.

Sustainable Development Commission, www.sd-commission.org.uk.

DCLG: Planning Policy Statement 1 (2005): Delivering Sustainable Development

Note: CIWEM Policy Position Statements (PPS) represent the Institution’s views on issues at a particular point in time. It is accepted that situations change as research provides new evidence. It should be understood, therefore, that CIWEM PPS’s are under constant review, and that previously-held views may alter and lead to revised PPS’s.