We are entering an age of unprecedented environmental breakdown, IPPR warns

20 Feb 2019 03:07 PM

Deadly combination of damage to land, soil, air, water and animal populations alongside climate change is creating catastrophic global risk, says IPPR report

The world faces a growing risk of a “perfect storm” of runaway changes caused by widespread environmental breakdown, according to a ground-breaking report by the IPPR think tank.

Climate change is just one of a range of global environmental threats which could combine to create unprecedented crises and threaten the stability of societies, the report says. Natural systems are now being destabilised so quickly that dangerous “tipping points” may soon be reached, with consequences that may be extreme.

Not only does the world need to act urgently to prevent some of the worst possibilities being realised, but countries including the UK need to begin planning for the impacts of changes that are already set to occur.

The UK exceeds its share per head of five out of seven “sustainability boundaries”, according to analysis cited in the report, suggesting that significant action is needed for the country to contribute to the realisation of “sustainable and just” global outcomes.

Among issues facing Britain, as well as the need to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, the report lists:

The report, This is a crisis: Facing up to the age of environmental breakdown, is the first to bring together growing understanding of the multiple environmental threats humanity faces, and to ask what this means for people, governments and policy-makers worldwide.

It argues that human impact on the environment is now so great that it risks generating significant economic instability, large-scale involuntary migration, conflict, famine and even the collapse of social and economic systems.

It identifies a range of natural systems already damaged or under threat from the impact of rapidly accelerating human activity:

The report says that three shifts in understanding across political and policy communities are needed: of the scale and pace of environmental breakdown, the implications for societies, and the need for transformative change. It highlights the fact that poorer countries are most likely to experience the consequences of environmental breakdown, yet are less able to prepare for or respond to them.

It says the failure to adequately tackle the challenge reflects difficulties faced by decision makers in understanding and responding to complex, system-wide problems. Other factors that impede progress include the power of vested interests and the difficulty of rapidly changing the current economic system.

Lesley Rankin, IPPR researcher, said:

“This is a crisis particularly for millennial and younger generations – the leaders of tomorrow. They face the daunting twin tasks of preventing environmental breakdown while responding to its growing negative effects and the failure to stop the damage sooner.

“The report finds some signs that action to prevent catastrophe is possible, including the healing ozone layer and the accelerating roll-out of clean technologies. We need to move from these isolated successes to a transformation to make our societies and economies sustainable, just and prepared.”

Laurie Laybourn-Langton, IPPR Associate Fellow and lead author of the report, said:

“Our research shows how urgent it is that we understand and address a much wider range of environmental issues than climate change alone. Overall, the environment is breaking down, with consequences which include more drought, famine, forced migration and war. Environmental breakdown poses a catastrophic risk. This is a crisis.

“Our task now is to find ways to reduce this risk while building a fairer world. In the case of climate breakdown, the poorest half of the world’s population is responsible for only 10 per cent of global emissions. So it’s essential for humanity’s survival that urgent efforts to stem environmental breakdown are combined with a drive for greater global justice.”

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NOTES TO EDITORS

  1. The IPPR paper, This is a crisis: Facing up to the age of environmental breakdown, by Laurie Laybourn-Langton, Lesley Rankin and Darren Baxter is available for download at https://www.ippr.org/research/publications/age-of-environmental-breakdown
     
  2. IPPR is undertaking a programme of work to better understand and develop solutions to the problems. Over the next year, it will assess what progress has been made toward responding to environmental breakdown, using the UK as a case study within the global context. It will then develop policies that can realise a sustainable, just and prepared world and seek to understand how political and policy communities can develop the sense of agency needed to overcome environmental breakdown.
     
  3. IPPR is the UK’s pre-eminent progressive think tank. With more than 40 staff in offices in London, Manchester, Newcastle and Edinburgh, IPPR is Britain’s only national think tank with a truly national presence ippr.org.