A new Unicef report has found if everyone in the world consumed resources at the rate New Zealand does, we would need at least 2.7 Earths to keep up with consumption.
The latest Unicef Innocenti report card was released on Tuesday, which showed out of 39 developed countries in the OECD and European Union, New Zealand ranks 15th.
The Innocenti Report Card compares how 39 countries in the OECD and the EU fare in providing healthy environments for children.
The report looks at nine indicators in three different areas. The first category is 'the world of the child' which looks at do countries provide fresh clean air for children to breathe, do they provide clean water and is there lead poisoning entering their bodies.
The second category is 'the world and the children's environment', which focuses on if countries provide access to green spaces and safe roads.
The last category is 'the world at large', which looks at how countries are behaving, what are their consummation rates, how much e-waste is going into landfills and what are their CO2 emissions.
Unicef Aotearoa chief executive Michelle Sharp told AM on Tuesday one of the most concerning areas for New Zealand is that each person on average is producing 19.2kg of e-waste.
"It's quite a staggering statistic. E-waste is one of the fastest-growing things going into our landfills," Sharp told AM host Ryan Bridge.
"It's these behaviours, these activities that mean if we carry on the way that we are and the rest of the world behaved as we do, we would need 2.7 Earths to deal with that resource."
Sharp said New Zealand was far from the worst, with Luxembourg requiring eight Earths to keep up with what they're putting into landfills.
"This is the issue we need to talk about, it's the high-income countries that actually fare the worst and it's totally inequitable," she said.
"You think about the children from the least responsible nations, they're the ones that are suffering the most. The statistic that really challenges me to think about, is one of the worst countries in the OECD requires eight Earths to deal with the amount of things going into landfills - it's madness."
One area New Zealand performed well in was urban green spaces, but we were one of the lowest-ranked for the high rate of traffic accidents.
"Let me just say it's not all bad for us, yes we do rank 15th, we would love to be higher but we do provide good access and score really high for urban green spaces and clean air," Sharp told AM.
"Let's also talk about what we don't do so well. We are ranked 36th worst for traffic accidents. We are not providing a safe environment for our children and these are the areas we really need to focus on and really need to up our game in."
New Zealand also scored poorly in lead poisoning, with the report finding 3.8 percent of children have dangerous levels of lead in their blood.
"In terms of lead poisoning, or lead that is going into our bodies, it's not good and we need to do something about that," Sharp said.
"There has been a lot of work done and we have come a long way as a nation but there is further to go. It's paint, it's water, it's various sources that are creating this lead entering our systems."
Watch the full interview with Michelle Sharp above.
