Global Futures Report

News:Recently, the Global Futures report has been released jointly by the World Wide Fund for Nature, Global Trade Analysis Project and the Natural Capital Project.

Facts:

About the report:

• The report analysed how the natural assets would change under various future development scenarios and how the consequent changes in ecosystem services would in turn affect the global economy.

Key takeaways from the report:

Ecosystem Services:

• Nature has provided humanity with six ecosystem services namely 1) Pollination of crops 2) Protection of coasts from flooding and erosion 3) Supply of water 4) Timber production 5) Marine fisheries and 6) Carbon storage.
• However,the natural assets that provided these services — forests, wetlands, coral reefs and fish stocks are under attack from the globe’s human population in the name of unsustainable economic development.

The report has presented two scenarios namely:

Business as usual:

• In this situation,the reduced supply of the six ecosystem services would lead to a 0.67% drop in the annual global GDP by 2050.
• That would be equal to annual loss of $479 billion and total cumulative loss of $9.87 trillion in the period between 2011 (the base year for the study) and 2050.

Sustainable Model:

• In this,if the world adopts a more sustainable model of development and safeguarded biodiverse areas, the annual global GDP would be higher by 0.02%— $11 billion — by 2050.

Additional information:

About WWF:

• The World Wide Fund for Nature(WWF) is an international non governmental organization founded in 1961.It is headquartered at Gland,Switzerland.
• It aims to stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature.