By Chris Wickham
LONDON (Reuters) – Scientists
from 15 countries are calling for a better political response to the provision of water and energy to
meet the challenge of feeding a world of 9 billion people within 30 years.
Statoil oil sands operation near Conklin, Alberta, is seen in this file picture taken November 3, 2011.
REUTERS/Todd Korol/Files
The joint statement by some
of the world’s leading science academies was issued on Thursday ahead of the G8 summit in the United
States. It is part of the annual lobbying effort aimed at focusing the attention of world leaders on
issues the scientific community regards as crucial.
For the first time, the scientists argue
that looming shortages in water and energy supplies should be treated as a single issue.
“Major
stresses on availability of energy and water are already being felt in many countries and regions and
more are foreseeable,” the joint statement said.
Fossil fuel, nuclear and hydropower are still
providing the bulk of the world’s energy and they all rely heavily on the supply of water for cooling,
running steam turbines or direct power generation. Conversely, large amounts of energy are used in
pumping, purifying and desalinating water around the globe.
“Without considering water and
energy together, inefficiencies will occur, increasing shortages of both,” the statement warns.
Politicians should pursue policies that integrate the two and emphasise the need for conservation,
efficiency and cooperation across national borders.
DISASTERS CERTAIN TO HAPPEN
The world
also needs to increase its resilience against disasters like those which result from tsunamis,
earthquakes and levees that fail in the face of rising sea levels.
“Disasters are absolutely
certain to happen,” Michael Clegg of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences told Reuters, adding growth
in the global population, from 7 billion now, was focused on coastal areas that are more vulnerable,
making it “more important that we design for resilience.”
The scientists said global annual
losses from natural disasters exceeded $200 billion in 2005, 2008 and 2011 but loss of life was
generally much lower in developed countries.
Governments should focus efforts on improving
public health systems, strengthening building standards and better information technology that enables
faster warnings and response.
Signatories of the statement are from the leading science
academies in the United States, Russia, China, Britain, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India,
Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Morocco and South Africa.
They also call for better measurement
of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions and more solid data country by country on natural resources
like forests, which absorb some of the most damaging carbon emissions.
“More accurate and
standardized methods for estimating human and natural sources and sinks of greenhouse gases are needed
as a prerequisite for an international climate treaty and to determine the effectiveness of national
emission-reduction programmes,” they said.
Clegg said that despite the widespread acceptance of
the need to reduce greenhouse gases, there is still a lot of uncertainty about, and a lack of
standardisation in, the methods for measuring those emissions.
“There is a great need to develop
more accurate approaches,” he said, adding that it was a fundamental building block for the world’s
response to climate change but “getting a correct measurement … is challenging.”
The statement
urges politicians to “give greater consideration to the vital role science and technology could play in
addressing some of the planet’s most pressing challenges”.