Big challenge for sustainable development: 40 percent oil reserves exhausted due to excessive use: expert

Nearly 40 percent of the known world oil reserves have been exhausted due to excessive use of the natural resources which challenges sustainable development as a result of this depletion. These views were expressed by Haroldo Mattos De Lemos, a highly respected expert on International Organisation of Standardisation (ISO) from Brazil, while speaking on sustainable development and ecological footprint at a regional seminar held in Hanoi, Vietnam on January 12 and 13.
Conditions prevailing in Pakistan were also highlighted. According to details available here, Haroldo said that transformation of the Biosphere (planet earth and its life: the whole area of earth's surface, atmosphere, and sea that is inhabited by living things) during the 21st century has recorded changes which include human population soaring from 1.5 billion to 6.1 billion; economic activity increased tenfold between 1950 and 2000; most of the world fisheries were over-exploited; and as regards atmosphere, there was a sharp increase in greenhouse gases (GHG) concentration.
The Pakistani delegate, Engr M A Jabbar, a former vice-president of Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), in his hard-hitting presentation, said that sustainable development which is fuelled by the consumption of natural resources, social values, economic manoeuvrings affects the environment during the lifecycle of the processes which is desired to improve the quality of life of the people and the lifecycle management engaged in the complete chain of developing the economy, resulting in increased gross domestic produce levels for use and consumption.
Concern shown by the experts in the regional seminar was to sustain the development without adversely damaging the environment which otherwise can cast shadow on the balance in the nature which is responsible for the forecast in respect of all the data used for managing the future of generations to meet their own needs.
He said that experts in the seminar invariably agreed that 21st Century is facing problems such as water scarcity, global warming, and energy and oil scarcity with unpredictable prices fuelling the inflation and in specific adversely affecting the poor countries which are not settled with the strength of economy to sustain the developments for meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
One could refer to the ongoing demands by the importing countries from exporters of Pakistan to comply with the environmental standards for qualifying to sell the Pakistani products in overseas markets. He said that litigations and directions by the superior judiciary in Pakistan are the additional burdens which need to be accounted for besides obligations of WTO wherein trade and environment are getting closely linked with technical barriers to trade and non tariff barriers.
Jabbar said that ISO is trying to generate consensus on standards on environment. The earlier series of ISO 14,000 in respect of environment quality management has been scoring registrations for purchase and sale of trust during physical transfer of goods and services against monitory transactions. He said that Pakistan appears to be slow moving on all the agenda items which are initiated from developed countries and more from the platform of international organisation of standardisation, which needs to be corrected with time and scale to synchronise with World Trading System of political economy we have to work with.
He said that the increase in population with decrease in the known oil reserves itself is the manifestation of fuelling the fragile economies with virus of inflation and hyperinflation resulting into disturbances in smooth functioning of state controls due to rise in prices of fuel with the depleting trend in natural resources. The resulting poverty in Pakistan is contributed by 4 ingredients, namely: less intake of calories a day against world standards, earning less than 2 dollars a day affects the physical wellbeing of individuals needs, in contravention of basic minimum needs, and right based deficiencies. The causes of these 4 ingredients of economy relate to poverty, which is embedded in economic, cultural, social and political disparity.
With reference to the assertion of the resource person who is also vice chairman of ISO technical committee 2007 while claiming that water scarcity could be reconciled with position in Pakistan wherein water has dropped from more than 5000 cubic metres per capita availability to just 1000 cubic metres per capita in near future as a consequence of data collections during the last few decades.
The resulting effect has been passed on to less generation of hydel energy, lower food supplies resulting into higher prices and, above all, climatic changes which in no way can be disconnected from floods and abnormal rains against the otherwise historical registrations during the periods in Pakistan.
The correction of environmental and lifecycle as were rightly being discussed in the regional seminar would also point finger at Pakistan's own position wherein the country has the largest irrigation system with highest rates of losses in the world. These losses, if not corrected for the just and fair use of extra demand, will persist for a shortage of over 40 million acre-feet (MAF), which has almost triggered the war between and among provinces for water distribution thus affecting the harmony among the provinces.
This is called 'non-sustainable options', picked up by our decision makers related to what we call example of bad governance leading to non-sustainability in the paradigm of economic development, allowing water losses up to 40 percent.
"Haroldo Matos De Lemos is right", he said, by suggesting that we must guarantee availability of natural resources for sustainable development. Present gas shortages in Pakistan, resulting in closure of industries, particularly in Punjab, less power generation on gas, preferring pollution of environment by switching over of internal combustion engines from ethane and methane gas mixture of more friendly natural gas to gasoline would amount to our questionable sustainability due to inability to guarantee the availability of natural resources.
Haroldo also stressed need for the use of renewable resources (wood, soil, water, fish) for which he suggested that rate of use can be no greater than the rate of regeneration of its source. In case of Pakistan, deforestation and not afforestation appears to be on going use of resources without leaving anything for the future generation to meet their own needs. On the other paradigm, he said, non-renewable sources and their use should be as such that "the rates of use can be no greater than the rate at which a renewable resource, used sustainably, can be substituted for it.". On this, Engr Jabbar said, "we have no such vision which has been encompassed by the policy on surface".
The seminar also touched upon the challenges to achieve sustainable development by reducing poverty wherever it existed as it could otherwise disturb the tranquillity of the society. Pakistan, with 40 percent and above population living below poverty line, must sustain development to reduce the level of poverty which example refers to forcing president from Tunisia to run out of the country. The politicians in Pakistan must come close to work on strategy for economic development by respecting the merit and invoking the good governance otherwise we may not arrest the continuity of the bad law and order situation in the country, which has created frustration and is hampering our development.
Experts in the seminar said that the main challenge to achieve sustainable development requires that we should not exceed the limits of the Biosphere to recycle and absorb residues and pollution. While counting on Pakistan in specifics, referring to a mega city like Karachi, almost all the effluent treatment plants under the city district government have almost no or little quality of treatment to claim. Even the biggest industrial area like SITE with more than 3000 industries, has yet to see the action of public sector to fulfil its international obligation for commissioning effluent treatment plants to supply the facilitation for businessmen to conduct smooth overseas trade which is now increasingly being linked with the environment. How we can sustain our trade in a situation where the individual companies are insisting for showing environmental compliance as a barter to import from our export interest merchandise, he said.
The resource persons in the seminar on development and ecological footprint explained the ecological footprint, saying that it is a measurement and decision tool that computes how much land and water area a human population needs to produce the resources it consumes and absorb its waste, using prevailing technology. Caution was given to create conditions to sustain development in a future economy of 2050 year where the planet of around 9 billion people would need to live well, with enough food, clean water, sanitation, shelter, mobility, education and health to make for wellness within the limits of what this small fragile planet can supply and renew every day.
The seminar also touched upon the need for changes in the governance structures, which we commonly refer to good governance. The resource persons in the seminar concluded that the world can be on the way of sustainability in future if the pathway leading to that world will require fundamental changes in governance structure, economic frame works business and human behaviour. This is a lesson we may pick up for correcting ourselves so that this society is not disturbed by the situations casting non-sustaining developments in Pakistan, Jabbar said.