Nairobi, December 3 (IANS): Extraction of material resources - biomass, fossil fuels and non-metallic minerals - globally could reach 88.6 billion tonnes this year, or three times that used in 1970, the International Resource Panel said on Sunday. Its report also contained an interesting case study of New Delhi's pollution mitigation strategies. Since material resource use is likely to then more than double by 2050 on current trends, the global economy must embrace resource efficiency to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, the report said. With 19 million premature deaths estimated each year due to environmental and infrastructure-related risk factors linked to natural resource use, the report suggests that better and more efficient extraction and use of natural resources could be one of the most effective and cost-effective ways to reduce environmental impacts, including pollution. Assessing Global Resource Use was released at the Science-Policy-Business Forum, a preliminary event to the UN Environment Assembly, which runs from December 4-6 at UN Environment headquarters here.
