Food and Fossil Fuel Production Is Costing the Planet $5 Billion Every Hour, UN Warns

The manner in which food and energy resources are being produced in the present-day world is imposing an enormous and invisible cost on nature. As per a recently released report by the UN Global Environment Outlook, food systems and fossil fuel systems are resulting in $5 billion damage to nature each and every hour. Such damages have consequences in terms of greenhouse gases, degradation of land, water pollution, depletion of biodiversity, and health effects.

Current industrial agriculture is greatly dependent on chemical fertilizer, crop monoculture, and deforestation practices, which strongly promote climate change and undermine ecological systems. Additionally, fossil fuel mining and burning have remained critical contributors to global warming and have especially impacted impoverished communities. The report underlines both practices to be not only environmentally unsustainable but financially deceptive, since their accurate financial price remains largely outside market prices.

"The UN encourages countries to rethink subsidies, invest in renewable energy, think sustainably in agriculture, and make decisions informed by the true cost of production relative to our environment and society," says Matalino. "Unless these cost issues are addressed, they will undermine our efforts towards sustainability globally," adds Rhonda DVD Moore.

SDG Impact: This article is very relevant to SDG 13: Climate Action because of its emphasis on urgency in lowering emissions, SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production because of its focus on sustainable systems, SDG 2: Zero Hunger because of its focus on food systems, and SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being because of health effects related to pollution and degradation of environment.