GLOBAL NATURAL RESOURCES, CLIMATE HAVE PAID COST FOR NORTH AMERICAN ENVIRONMENTAL SUCCESS -- UNEP REPORT

GLOBAL NATURAL RESOURCES, CLIMATE HAVE PAID COST FOR NORTH AMERICAN

ENVIRONMENTAL SUCCESS -- UNEP REPORT

OTTAWA, 14 August 2002 (UNEP) -- A new report released today indicates that the success of the United States and Canada in improving local environments where its people can live with clean water and air and enjoy green spaces has come at the expense of global natural resources and climate.

The report, "North America's Environment:  A thirty-year state of the environment and policy retrospective", is published by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as a regional product of the UNEP Global Environmental Outlook (GEO 3) process.  It was produced in collaboration with the World Resources Institute (WRI), the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and the Commission for Environmental Cooperation of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation.

"While Canada and the United States have had notable success in resolving a lot of environmental problems, progress has slowed largely due to increasing consumption by its growing population," said Brennan Van Dyke, Regional Director of UNEP's Regional Office for North America.

Over the past 30 years, North America has had success with a number of environmental problems.  Most notably, it has:

-- protected the ozone layer:  non-essential chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) consumption was reduced to nearly zero by 1996;

-- controlled emissions that cause acid rain:  SO2 emissions in the United States declined 31 percent between 1981 and 2000, and 24 percent between 1991 and 2000;

-- set aside parks and other protected areas:  today, between 11 and 13 per cent of the region's land area is protected;

-- slowed wetland losses:  between 1988 and 1993, over 850,000 hectares of wetland and associated upland habitat were protected in Canada alone;

-- stemmed emissions from point sources:  aggregate emissions of six principal pollutants in the United States have been cut 29 percent;

-- reduced pollution in the Great Lakes:  since 1972, there has been an overall reduction of 71 per cent in the use, generation and release of seven priority toxic chemicals into the Great Lakes; and

--    stabilized desertification and land degradation:  expansion of plant cover on rangelands and other conservation approaches led to substantial reductions in wind and water erosion.

The report focused on key priorities issues related to atmosphere, biodiversity, coastal and marine areas, freshwater, land, forests, disasters, human health and environment, and urban areas.

However, in many instances, gains made in arresting environmental pollution and degradation have recently been eroded by choices related to consumption increases and population growth:

Total energy use in North America grew by 31 per cent between 1972 and

1997; progress in fuel efficiency has been offset by increases in the number of automobiles and the total number of kilometres traveled, and by a trend since

1984 toward heavier and less fuel-efficient passenger vehicles; and a consumer lifestyle based on the desire for mobility, convenience and product disposability has undercut the further advancement of resource efficiency and waste reduction.

With about 5 per cent of the world's population, North America accounted for 25.8 per cent of global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) in 1998; per capita annual gasoline consumption for motor vehicles was nine times the world average; in 1997, the United States transport sector accounted for more than one-third of total world transportation energy use; and by 1996, North America's ecological footprint was four times greater than the world average, its forest footprint

4.4 times larger; its CO2 footprint was almost five times the world average.

For more information, please contact:  Jim Sniffen, UNEP Information Officer in New York, Tel:  +1-212 963-8094, e-mail:  sniffenj@un.org or Keith Robinson, Deputy Director, UNEP Regional Office for North America, in Washington, D.C., tel: +1-202-785-0465, e-mail: keith.robinson@rona.unep.org.

The North American report is available online at www.na.unep.net;

Global Environment Outlook 3 is also available on the same site.

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