RESOURCING FUTURE GENERATIONS

A major challenge facing global society is continuity of raw material supply over the coming decades. In the middle of the 20^th century, some countries experienced unprecedented improvements in living standards, as measured against virtually any metric: mortality rates declined, life expectancies rose, and per capita incomes swelled. Technological advances drove a rapid increase in the discovery, production and utilisation of water and energy resources, as well as numerous mineral commodities, from construction staples to nuclear fuels and metals for advanced applications.

The demand for raw materials to satisfy the higher standards of living that the developing world has every right to expect is apparently insatiable and challenges from where these materials are to come.

Since its inception in 1972, a theme of UNESCO’s International Geoscience Programme has been Earth Resources, focussed particularly on Africa, with support for annual field workshops to address outdated geological maps and unequal distribution of surveys. Building on that, the International Union of Geological Sciences with support from the International Council for Science and UNESCO has launched a new initiative, Resourcing Future Generations (RFG). Working with stakeholders in industry, the social sciences and its affiliated groups, IUGS will play a catalytic and coordinating role in RFG through activities such as

1. Evaluating and quantifying 21^st century supply and demand;
2. Enhancing understanding of the subsurface as it relates to mineral (energy and groundwater) resources;
3. Evaluating where additional natural resources are likely to be found;
4. Building additional capacity to facilitate responsible development in less developed nations.

Accomplishments include Town Hall meetings held at GSA and AGU, dissemination of a brochure setting out the case for RFG, a symposium at China mining 2014 with the publication of a White Paper on Mineral Resources and Future Supply, a workshop, held in Windhoek Namibia, preparatory to a major symposium at the 35^th IGC in 2016.