Why Less?

World Business Council on Sustainable Development explains that eco-efficiency “creates more value with less impact by unlinking goods and services from the use of nature.” According to the World Bank, global gross domestic product (GDP) has more than doubled between 1992 and 2019, from 39 to 85 trillion 2010 USD. One positive development worth pointing out at this point is that the environmental impact per unit of GDP has been decreasing, at least for a number of important environmental indicators. Just to keep the annual environmental impact from cement, steel, plastic, and aluminum production constant since the Earth Summit, impact per ton of material would have had to go down by 60–70%. The most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide (CO₂), which is released when fossil fuels are burned, certain industrial processes are run, or when land is deforested or otherwise degraded. Atmospheric CO₂ concentration is the single most important indicator for monitoring anthropogenic climate change.