Saskatchewan has the necessary resources to feed and fuel the world in the coming decades, along with providing food and energy security to billions, says the Saskatchewan Mining Association (SMA).
A growing global population, a changing climate and the need for secure baseload energy will drive this worldwide growth, explained Pamela Schwann, president of the SMA. More food will need to be grown and more green energy technologies will be required, but it will all have to happen on less available land.
Schwann singled out China, India and Africa as places where growth will continue to explode. China, in particular, is now consuming 30 per cent of the planet’s base metals, compared to five per cent in the 1980s. Worldwide, the industrialized middle class will grow to 9.2 billion people by 2050.
Saskatchewan will be important to this global sustainability, Schwann said on May 29 at the Grant Hall Hotel, during a breakfast hosted by the Moose Jaw Chamber of Commerce to acknowledged Saskatchewan Mining Week.
In the next 40 years, there will be a need for more food equivalent to what has been produced during the last 10,000 years, she continued. Crop production must increase by 70 per cent by 2050. In Africa, fertilizer use has increased by 130 per cent since 2008. Effective policies, new farming methods and improved inputs have contributed to better harvests and reduced poverty.
“Globally, one billion people still live without electricity. Access to energy is essential to reduce poverty,” Schwann said.
Energy consumption is expected to grow by 75 per cent by 2040, with nearly two-thirds of that growth happening in countries not affiliated with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), of which Canada is a member.
There will also be strong nuclear growth in the coming decades; there are 55 reactors already under construction. China — whose electricity is dominated by coal, at 73 per cent — is moving toward clean fuels, including nuclear. It has roughly 45 nuclear reactors in operation, is constructing 17 reactors and has more lined up.
“This is a big market for Saskatchewan uranium,” Schwann said.
Future global demand for resources such as potash for crop growth and uranium for nuclear power is strong, she continued. Saskatchewan can provide both resources for decades.
Furthermore, provincial mining companies have smaller environmental footprints than their global competitors, while they also provide greater social benefits — employment, business, support — to provincial communities than global competitors.
The main question, she added, is whether Saskatchewan can remain globally competitive in the face of price fluctuations.
For more information, visit saskmining.ca.
