Resource Endowments in Emerging Market Countries

Abstract

This article examines the emerging market countries on their national strategic resources—farmland, fresh water, and fossil energy—which are analyzed from the perspectives of distribution, status of development, and existing issues. The study draws the following conclusions: Emerging market countries have abundant farmland resources yet inadequate per capita resources; because of extensive operation on farmland, grain yield is low, which threatens food security; emerging market countries are saliently short in water resources per capita and face imbalances and low productivity over water use, and their agriculture practices are water-intensive; emerging market countries are growing as global centers for production, consumption, and trade of fossil energy, with a long, coal-dominated consumption structure that has a growing momentum, which subjects them to a greater pressure to reduce carbon emissions; and emerging market countries are inefficient in the use of energy, though they have huge potential for energy conservation and consumption reduction.