The global ecological footprint is calculated by measuring the amount of biologically productive land and sea area that is required to sustain a certain way of life. Land and sea have to produce the resources consumed and absorb the generated waste of a population.
The ecological footprint measures how much nature we use compared to how much we have. This accounting approach tracks how much biologically productive land and water area an individual, population or activity uses to produce all the resources it consumes, to house all its infrastructure, and to absorb its waste given prevailing technology and resource management practices. […]
When a population’s ecological footprint exceeds the biocapacity of its territory, it runs a biocapacity deficit.
EU Commission - Ecological Footprint, 2018
The footprints unit is given in “earths required”, that would be needed if the global population adopted this way of life. For example, if we all lived like Nicaraguans, one earth would suffice. As Qataris we’d burn through 8.7 earths. Not every Qatari lives like a Sheik, but an oil producing country with low environmental standards is an unsustainable combination.
A small ecological footprint on the other hand is often coupled with underdevelopment. Form 182 countries only 60 of them have a way of life the earth could sustain for all of us. Almost all these sustainable countries belong to the low or lower-middle income group, none of them is in the high income realm. And only four of the 60 countries have a high human development. They are: Egypt, Jordan, Moldova, and Tunisia. This amounts to 2.6% of the world’s population, that lives a sustainable and good life according to the Human Development Index (HDI).
Roughly 60% of the world population lives in countries with an ecological deficit. That is to say, that a population’s ecological footprint exceeds the region’s biocapacity.
11 regions or countries had no HDI data available in 2023:
| Country | Number of Earths required |
|---|---|
| Côte d’Ivoire | 0.6 |
| Somalia | 0.6 |
| Zimbabwe | 0.7 |
| North Korea | 0.8 |
| Zambia | 0.8 |
| French Guiana | 1.0 |
| Martinique | 2.3 |
| Guadeloupe | 2.3 |
| Réunion | 2.3 |
| French Polynesia | 2.5 |
| Bermuda | NaN |
Human Development Index
The HDI, was introduced by the UN in 1990 to provide a better evaluation of human development than mere economic statistics do. It measures health, education, and the standard of living. Health is gauged by life expectancy at birth. Education by the average years of schooling. And standard of living is assessed by the gross national income (GNI) per capita. The HDI can provide insights that a single measures cannot. For exampe a country with high GNI but low HDI may have it’s priorities wrong, while a country with low GNI but high HDI may be doing something right that is worth emulating.