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Portugal's Ecofootprint

Portugal's ecological footprint is well above the world average... If everyone in the world consumed resources and produced waste at the same level as the Portuguese, we would need 3 planets to meet these resource demands and absorb the accompanying pollution. Portugal's footprint is also unusually high for its wealth level, i.e., most countries with such a large footprint have a significantly higher per capita GNP. There is evidence that the problem has been getting worse in recent years, with energy comprising the main component of the country's footprint.

At the same time, Portugal has been in the forefront of developing innovative solutions to reverse this trend by reducing consumption levels and increasing resource use efficiency and biocapacity. Specifically, the work done in Portugal as part of the One Planet Living partnership promoted by BioRegional and WWF is setting a global benchmark on ways society can achieve both sustainable development and nature conservation.

ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINTING:
FRAMING THE PROBLEM

- The Ecological Footprint is a rigorous means of measuring how our lifestyles impact both the planet and other people. It calculates how much productive land, freshwater and sea is needed to provide all the food, water, energy and materials we use in our everyday lives. It also calculates the emissions generated from the oil, coal and gas we burn, and determines how much land is required to absorb our wastes. By comparing rates in different places, it gives a concrete measure of how the lifestyles of some areas are affecting others, via their resource use and waste production.

- The global Ecological Footprint was 13.5 billion hectares in 2001, the most recent year for which global figures are available, or 2.2 'global hectares' per person.

- This demand on nature can be compared with the Earth's biocapacity, based on its biologically productive area. This stands at approximately 11.3 billion global hectares, or a quarter of the Earth's surface. The productive area of the biosphere translates into an average of 1.8 global hectares per person, making this the 'fair share' of the world's resources available to each person.

- Comparing these numbers shows that humanity's Ecological Footprint currently exceeds global biocapacity by 0.4 global hectares per person, or 21 percent.

- This 'overshoot' means we are consuming resources faster than they are being regenerated, and are now eating into the earth's 'natural capital'. The end result is the destruction of assets on which our economy and life itself depends. Examples include disappearing forests, eroding soils, collapsing fisheries, and falling water tables. A key manifestation of this overshoot is climate change, which is causing an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events.

- The problem of overshooting existing resource capacity is particularly associated with richer, industrialised nations. For example, if everyone in the world lived as Americans do, we would need five planets to maintain our lifestyle over time.

- Portugal is an example of a country whose ecological footprint is greater than might be expected. The country's per capita footprint is 18th in the global ranking, above that of Germany or Japan. Moreover, the figures show that current trends point toward a growing problem, with Portugal's footprint 35th in the global rankings just five years ago.

- The current Portuguese footprint is equivalent to 5.2 hectares per person per year, yet available global biocapacity is just 1.8 hectares per person. In other words, if everyone in the world lived like the Portuguese, we would need almost three planets (5.2 / 1.8 = 2.89) to meet our demand for natural resources and absorb our waste and pollution.

- The figure of 5.2 hectares per person per year also represents an increase in absolute terms, with figures for 3 years previously standing at 4.5 hectares.

- At the same time as our ecological footprint is increasing, the "Living Planet Index" (LPI) is receding. The LPI is an indicator of the state of the world's biodiversity. It measures trends in populations of vertebrate species around the world, and currently tracks changes in abundance of 555 terrestrial species, 323 freshwater species and 267 marine species. Between 1970 and 2000, the index fell by about 40 percent.

- While the LPI fell by some 40 percent between 1970 and 2000, the terrestrial index fell by about 30 percent, the freshwater index by about 50 percent, and the marine index by around 30 percent.

- Over the same period, the global Ecological Footprint grew by 70 percent while the world's human population grew by 65 per cent.

RESPONDING TO THE FOOTPRINT CHALLENGE

- Global ecological debt will continue to grow as long as the Ecological Footprint exceeds biocapacity. The resulting risk for humanity, and the Earth's biodiversity, can only be ended by shrinking and ultimately eliminating the debt - i.e., by living within the biocapacity of one planet.

- Measures required to reduce our ecological footprint include:
- Improve the efficiency with which goods and services are produced
- Reduce per capita consumption of goods and services
- Increase biocapacity by conserving and restoring ecosystems, thus maintaining biological productivity and ecological services.

- While Portugal may be notable for its ecological footprint, it is also notable for pioneering the global "One Planet Living" initiative - a joint initiative of BioRegional and WWF that seeks to put into practice just such measures via forming partnerships with leading private companies.

- Groundbreaking work has been done in Portugal to establish strategies to improve efficiency, reduce consumption and increase biocapacity, as well as indicators to verify progress. This includes proposals to increase protected areas, restore degraded ecosystems, preserve wetlands, and eliminate the use of toxic chemicals.

- As part of the wider OPL initiative, the pioneering work of OPL Portugal is a highly positive contribution not just to solving Portugal's problems, but also the challenges facing humanity.

ONE PLANET LIVING COMMUNITIES

The challenge facing people everywhere is to find ways to enjoy a high quality of life that does not exceed the carrying capacity of our planet. For Portugal and other countries with high a ecological footprint, this means finding ways to reduce their footprint, notably by reducing consumption of fossil fuels and virgin materials. For lower-income communities, it means enabling growth in a sustainable way.

One Planet Living Communities is a joint initiative of WWF and BioRegional Development Group that aims to establish a set of sustainable communities in diverse contexts around the world. Projects are delivered via partnerships with private developers or public sector bodies, who must meet strict environmental and social criteria. Work in Portugal is furthest advanced, but is also underway in Australia, China, North America, South Africa and the United Kingdom. The goal is to establish One Planet Living communities on every continent by 2009.

If One Planet Living is to become the norm around the world, it must be affordable and attractive to a diverse range of peoples and cultures. It must therefore address key human needs, including housing, clothing, food, healthcare, education, energy, transport and leisure. One Planet Living must also be easy - few people actually want to live unsustainably. However, it is often too easy to make decisions that have damaging, unsustainable consequences, and too difficult to choose more sustainable options. To live at a one planet level, we need to be able to change the 'defaults' of our daily lifestyle decisions to ones that are sustainable.

To help humanity change course, governments should act like any responsible business that keeps track of its income and spending in order to protect its assets. Specifically, they should keep ecological accounts, then pursue policies that build on this information as a means to help protect and restore the planet's natural assets. Via its communities, OPL provides high-profile examples to government of what is possible while also providing a basis for ongoing lobbying efforts.

Businesses and industry can play an important role too. For example, they can switch from fossil fuels to renewable energies and use efficient technologies, buildings and transport systems. One Planet Living shows how environmentalists and the market can work together to deliver innovative solutions that can reverse our growing impact on the natural world without compromising our quality of life.

One Planet Living builds on the experience of the Beddington Zero fossil Energy Development (BedZED). BedZED is an urban ecovillage in South London that has experimented with diverse OPL-type solutions to practical challenges. For instance, its homes are highly energy efficient, while units have private gardens and conservatories despite their compact design. Residents find BedZED a desirable place to live, contradicting the common but erroneous assumption that a smaller Ecological Footprint means a lower quality of life.

Last updated 12th March 2008