Present rate of the ecological footprint and its trends globally and in Hungary

The ecological footprint calculation for countries and the globe is carried out by the Global Footprint Network (See "Partners"). Based on this – in year 2005 – 17.5 billion global-hectare [gha] was the ecological footprint of the people, which equals to 2.7 gha/person. The global biocapacity was 13.6 billion gha, which means 2.1 gha/person. From these data it can be seen that the ecological footprint of the people is almost 30 % over the limits – which can not be sustained on a long term –, putting it on an other way our planet is in the state of ecological overshoot. This state started in the early 1980s, unfortunately the rate of it is getting worse since then. The attached chart shows the timescale of the global ecological footprint change for the last decade, at the same time showing the rate of the different footprint components.

WWF-Living Planet Report 2008

Hungaryis also in the state of overshoot, as the ecological footprint (in 2006) was 3.23 gha/person, which is on one hand higher than the expected and on the other hand the domestic biocapacity value is 2.58 gha/person. Fortunately the biocapacity per capita in Hungary is relatively high. But if we have to compare to the world average (year 2006) biocapacity (which is 1.81 gha/person), we have to see that the overshoot of Hungary is about ~79 %, so 1.79 planet would be needed if all the people lived the same life - in terms of ecological footprint - as the Hungarian average, if we are thinking in a long term sustainable structure.

To the contrary of the above mentioned status there is good news, as well: our ecological footprint - with a really good standard of living (!) - can be decreased. This is the reason why the present website and the attached services were called into existence.