Belgium, fifth ecological footprint in the world

Belgium, fifth ecological footprint in the world

According to the "Living Planet" World Wildlife Fund (WWF) report published on Tuesday, Belgium has the fifth heaviest global ecological footprint in the world. Belgium “won" a place in the top 5  and is now only preceded by Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Denmark. If the entire world's people lived like the Belgians, humanity would need 4.3 planets in order to sustain its needs; stated the 2014 Living Planet Report.

Belgium is indeed in the top five of the largest ecological footprints, with an estimate of 7.47 hectares per capita consumption compared to 7.11 hectares in the previous report. By comparison, the world average is 2.3 hectares and, according to the WWF, it would take a planet and a half to produce all the renewable environmental resources required to support the footprint of humanity.

Only Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Denmark are doing less than Belgium to decrease their footprint.

Half of the Belgian imprint is due to CO2 emissions related to energy consumption in households and the transport sector.

Specifically, in Belgium, "the buildings are poorly insulated, there is very little renewable energy, road transport is very dense and the company car policy does not encourage the use of public transport"  stated Frank Hollander from the WWF.

Measures are still being taken by the WWF in order to reduce the ecological footprint of the country. Each person can help, said Frank Hollander. At the individual level, "Eating less and better" is already a good starting point, he said. “Belgians could begin by eating less meat, since its production has a fairly large footprint."

(Source: Belga)


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