# Reading: Emissions, material scarcity and biodiversity
*Activity type: book*

## Chapter 1: Emissions

The way that our economy operates is directly linked to climate change. The creation of goods and services in our predominantly linear economic system is causing emissions, pollution, toxicity and many other **negative externalities** that have led to us overshooting six out of nine measured planetary boundaries.

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##### Planetary boundaries

The planetary boundaries represent a set of nine processes that regulate the stability and resilience of our planet’s environment, when you consider the Earth as a system. Scientists at the Stockholm Resilience Centre and the Australian National University quantified at what point any changes to these processes would lead to abrupt or irreversible environmental changes. The most recent measurement in 2023 shows that six out of nine of these limits – or boundaries – have now been exceeded. Learn more about this framework through thehref="https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/planetary-boundaries.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener" (https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/planetary-boundaries.html)

The main antagonist in the climate change conversation is **greenhouse gas** emissions. In Victoria, achieving net-zero emissions by 2045 is a legislated target, and with good reason. The science is undeniable about the need to reduce emissions, because they are the primary cause of accelerated global warming. This has led to the United Nations reaching a breakthrough agreement on 12 December 2015: the historic href="https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/paris-agreement" target="_blank" rel="noopener" (https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/paris-agreement). This Agreement sets long-term goals to substantially reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and hold global temperature increase to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels.

##### Definitions

**href="https://www.iso.org/standard/78864.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener" (https://www.iso.org/standard/78864.html)**: Gaseous constituent of the atmosphere, both natural and anthropogenic, that absorbs and emits radiation at specific wavelengths within the spectrum of infrared radiation emitted by the Earth’s surface, the atmosphere and clouds. Greenhouse gas.**
href="https://science.nasa.gov/climate-change/faq/what-is-the-greenhouse-effect/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" (https://science.nasa.gov/climate-change/faq/what-is-the-greenhouse-effect/)**: The process through which heat is trapped near Earth’s surface by substances known as ‘greenhouse gasses’ - NASA. Greenhouse effect.

To help inform action, it’s important to understand where emissions come from. href="https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-greenhouse-gas-emissions#:~:text=Human%20emissions%20of%20greenhouse%20gases,grow%20the%20food%20we%20eat" target="_blank" rel="noopener" (https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-greenhouse-gas-emissions#:~:text=Human%20emissions%20of%20greenhouse%20gases,grow%20the%20food%20we%20eat)represent a group of various gasses such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4)  and nitrous oxide (N2O), each with its own level of impact on the **greenhouse effect** . Some are created by the burning of fossil fuels and the use of non-renewable energy. Another common source is the use of vehicles, causing tailpipe emissions. But did you know that the extraction and use of materials also produces emissions? The production of concrete, steel and plastic, the growth of food crops, and the management of our waste are all sources of emissions. In fact, our research shows that about a third of Victoria’s total emissions come from materials.

![image](../../files/mod_book/chapter/64/image-2.png)

You can learn more abouthref="https://www.climatechange.vic.gov.au/greenhouse-gas-emissions" target="_blank" rel="noopener" (https://www.climatechange.vic.gov.au/greenhouse-gas-emissions)
 
This is important to note, because the variety in emission sources also means we need to consider a variety of solutions. Going all in on the use of renewable energy – think installing large numbers of solar panels and wind turbines, upgrading the electricity grid accordingly, and investing in electric vehicles everywhere – would only partially get us to our net-zero target. If we want to get to the level of emissions reduction that is needed, we also need to address those material-related emissions.

Material-related emissions are created by using heavy machinery to dig resources out of the ground, processes to refine resources into a usable form, through waste management processes, food production, and various other ways. In a circular economy, we keep materials in use for as long as possible which reduces the need for the extraction of new materials. Reusing, repairing or recycling materials requires less effort than extracting and creating new materials, and a reduction in waste also reduces waste-based emissions. This is why the transition to a circular economy is so important in the race to reduce emissions, and the climate change discussion overall.

In fact, research by href="https://www.circularity-gap.world/2021" target="_blank" rel="noopener" (https://www.circularity-gap.world/2021) suggests that the only way we are going to stay below the 2°C global warming limit specified by the Paris Agreement, is to adopt both the Agreement’s recommendations (the NDCs, or Nationally Determined Contributions) AND a circular economy:

![Graph displaying Carbon dioxide equivalent emissions in billion tonnes.](../../files/mod_book/chapter/64/blobid0-2.png)

Image: Graph displaying Carbon dioxide equivalent emissions in billion tonnes. Adapted from href="https://www.circularity-gap.world/2021" target="_blank" rel="noopener" (https://www.circularity-gap.world/2021)*

*Use the Table of Contents on the right to navigate to the next chapter - "Material scarcity"*

## Chapter 2: Material scarcity

Another issue that circularity will offer answers to is the fact that we’re physically running out of materials. Right now, this mainly applies to **critical minerals** such as cobalt, iridium and copper, but the longer we keep doing things in a linear way, the more resources will simply run out. There is no magical, infinite supply of anything, so the unchecked ‘taking’ that we are currently doing will result in most materials running out eventually.

An organisation called href="https://overshoot.footprintnetwork.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" (https://overshoot.footprintnetwork.org/) keeps track of how much the planet can sustainably provide each year, and on what date we have overshot that capacity. The graph shown here illustrates that when they started keeping track in 1971, we were running about break-even; we used about as much resources as the planet was sustainably able to provide in one year. But as you can also tell from that same graph, that date has been dropping ever since. In 2024, Earth Overshoot Day fell on August 1st, which implies that we’d need 1.7 Earths to sustainably provide the materials we use every year.

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Image: Date of overshoot day from 1971 - 2025. From href="https://overshoot.footprintnetwork.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" (https://overshoot.footprintnetwork.org/).*

But a global figure like that is an average that includes a lot of extremes in either way. They also calculate individual href="https://overshoot.footprintnetwork.org/newsroom/country-overshoot-days/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" (https://overshoot.footprintnetwork.org/newsroom/country-overshoot-days/), with Australia landing on March 19th in 2025. This means that if everyone on Earth were to consume resources like we do here in Australia, Earth Overshoot Day would fall on March 19th, not August 1st. That consumption behaviour would require more than four planets to sustain. This proves that our linear way of working is eating into our material reserves at a rate that is simply not sustainable.

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Image: Occurrence of overshoot day by country. href="https://overshoot.footprintnetwork.org/newsroom/country-overshoot-days/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" (https://overshoot.footprintnetwork.org/newsroom/country-overshoot-days/)*

The transition to a circular economy means switching to a closed-loop system where materials are kept in use rather than thrown away. This results in a reduced need to take new resources from the environment, making it our best shot at bringing material consumption back into sustainable limits.

Another element to consider here is the importance of supply chain security. The COVID19 pandemic has taught us that the disruption of global supply chains can have long-lasting consequences for smaller, domestic markets. Aside from reducing the need for new, virgin materials, another core tenet of a circular economy is to produce things locally where possible. Also consider that a closed-loop system implies that a minimal amount – ideally, none – of resources will fall out of the system as waste, which means that everything that is imported will remain in the domestic economic system to be reused, re-mined or otherwise ‘scavenged’ for materials. Once matured, a circular economy will have a positive impact on supply chain security because of this.

Consider href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2024/02/how-manufacturers-could-lead-the-way-in-building-the-circular-economy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" (https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2024/02/how-manufacturers-could-lead-the-way-in-building-the-circular-economy/)to learn more about how circularity strengthens supply chains.

*Use the Table of Contents on the right to navigate to the next chapter - "Biodiversity"*

## Chapter 3: Biodiversity

A crisis that might become more critical and damaging than global warming in the short-term future is biodiversity loss. As href="https://wwf.panda.org/discover/our_focus/biodiversity/biodiversity_and_you/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" (https://wwf.panda.org/discover/our_focus/biodiversity/biodiversity_and_you/), biodiversity underpins the health of the planet and has a direct impact on all of us. The loss of biodiversity can lead to land degradation, changes in farming and food productivity, water supply and pollution breakdown, and even climate stability and recovery from natural disasters. So, it’s important to understand that material extraction and processing is responsible for 90% of biodiversity loss, according to the href="https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/un-calls-urgent-rethink-resource-use-skyrockets" target="_blank" rel="noopener" (https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/un-calls-urgent-rethink-resource-use-skyrockets) . Drilling, mining and polluting the environment to obtain the resources we want obviously doesn’t do wonders for flora and fauna.

In a circular economy where materials are circulated again and again, the need to extract new resources drops, which will naturally have a positive impact on flora and fauna affected by material extraction and processing.

A study done by the href="https://www.sitra.fi/en/publications/tackling-root-causes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" (https://www.sitra.fi/en/publications/tackling-root-causes/) has found that the transition to circularity would fulfill 30% of the progress needed to stop and even improve upon biodiversity loss.

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Image: Comparison of biodiversity intactness over time across industry. href="https://www.sitra.fi/en/publications/tackling-root-causes/#results-the-circular-economy-can-turn-the-tide-on-biodiversity-loss" target="_blank" rel="noopener" (https://www.sitra.fi/en/publications/tackling-root-causes/#results-the-circular-economy-can-turn-the-tide-on-biodiversity-loss)*

Especially in the food and agriculture sector, which relies on changing large areas of land, circular interventions can have an incredibly positive impact. Sitra’s study suggests that the shift to alternative proteins and regenerative agriculture, and reducing food waste by half, could halt biodiversity loss by 2035.
