Interview: EU running 'enormous risk' of resource crunch[fr][de] 

"In the same way bankruptcy can be easily avoided if you understand how much you make and how much you spend, we need to apply the same rationale to ecological assets," according to Wackernagel. He argues that in order to avoid overuse of resources, ecological assets should be internalised into countries' national accounts, which are used to determine gross domestic product (GDP). 

"If we want to avoid ecological bankruptcy, it won't happen on its own and it can't be totally avoided by having accounts. But it is a necessary condition as a way to be able to manage how much we have to how much we use," he said.

Wackernagel's concerns about resource scarcity have been echoed in international headlines in recent weeks, with riots over skyrocketing food prices and food shortages erupting in Malaysia, Egypt, Mexico and a number of other countries.  

The UN's Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon yesterday (20 April) warned that the situation could seriously undermine global economic growth, security and poverty reduction.

Global average food prices have risen 83% in the past three years, according to the World Bank. Rising grain and cereal demand from China and India, climate change related crop failures, higher fossil fuel prices and the cultivation of crops for biofuel rather than food production are widely seen as contributing to the increase. 

Meanwhile EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson expressed concern that a rise in food prices could lead to agricultural protectionism, hampering the progress of the Doha Round of global trade liberalisation talks. "We are not going to meet food shortages by creating greater scarcity. Erecting new trade barriers is the last thing we should be contemplating," he said in a 17 April press statement.

Wackernagel argues the issue is "ultimately a budgeting question".

"It is a very straightforward adding up of all the ecological services that we depend on that are in mutual competition. For example, one competition is: do we want to use this space to grow potatoes or for growing timber or for sequestering carbon dioxide? Perhaps some of them can overlap, but most of the time it's done in mutual competition," he said

But Wackernagel also admits that "the biggest knowledge gap we have is how to have good long lives, health and security, good food, safe shelter, the ability to move around. Can we deliver these kinds of functions on far fewer resources?," he asked.

The EU, which has been criticised for its lack of a coherent strategy on natural resource management, is due to present action plans on sustainable consumption and production (SCP) and on a sustainable industrial policy (SIP) on 14 May (EurActiv 21/02/08). The action plans will include measures designed to cut resource waste while 'greening' the EU's product policy.

Meanwhile Council and Parliament are scheduled on 22 April to hold a debate with the Commission on the issue of unrest caused by rising food prices. 

To read the full transcript of the interview, please click here.