| 1. |
- Bjørn, Anders, et al.
(författare)
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Challenges and opportunities towards improved application of the planetary boundary for land-system change in life cycle assessment of products
- 2019
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Ingår i: Science of the Total Environment. - : Elsevier BV. - 0048-9697 .- 1879-1026. ; 696
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Life cycle assessment (LCA) can be used to translate the planetary boundaries (PBs) concept to the scale of decisions related to products. Existing PB-LCA methods convert quantified resource use and emissions to changes in the values of PB control variables. However, the control variable for the Land-system change PB, “area of forested land remaining”, is not suitable for use in LCA, since it is expressed at the beginning of an impact pathway and only covers forest biomes. At the same time, LCA approaches for modelling the biogeophysical impacts of land use and land-use change are immature and any interactions with other types of environmental impacts are lagging.Here, we propose how the assessment of Land-system change in PB-LCA can be improved. First, we introduce two control variables for application in LCA; surface air temperature and precipitation, and we identify corresponding provisional threshold values associated with state shifts in four comprehensive biome categories. Second, we propose simplified approaches suitable for modelling the impact of land use and land-use change in product life cycles on the values of these two control variables. Third, we propose how to quantify interactions between the PBs for Land-system change, Climate change and Freshwater use for a PB-LCA method. Finally, we identify several research needs to facilitate full implementation of our proposed approach.
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| 2. |
- Kehoe, Laura, et al.
(författare)
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Make EU trade with Brazil sustainable
- 2019
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Ingår i: Science. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 0036-8075 .- 1095-9203. ; 364:6438, s. 341-
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 3. |
- Leclere, David, et al.
(författare)
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Bending the curve of terrestrial biodiversity needs an integrated strategy
- 2020
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Ingår i: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 585:7826, s. 551-556
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Increased efforts are required to prevent further losses to terrestrial biodiversity and the ecosystem services that it provides(1,2). Ambitious targets have been proposed, such as reversing the declining trends in biodiversity(3); however, just feeding the growing human population will make this a challenge(4). Here we use an ensemble of land-use and biodiversity models to assess whether-and how-humanity can reverse the declines in terrestrial biodiversity caused by habitat conversion, which is a major threat to biodiversity(5). We show that immediate efforts, consistent with the broader sustainability agenda but of unprecedented ambition and coordination, could enable the provision of food for the growing human population while reversing the global terrestrial biodiversity trends caused by habitat conversion. If we decide to increase the extent of land under conservation management, restore degraded land and generalize landscape-level conservation planning, biodiversity trends from habitat conversion could become positive by the mid-twenty-first century on average across models (confidence interval, 2042-2061), but this was not the case for all models. Food prices could increase and, on average across models, almost half (confidence interval, 34-50%) of the future biodiversity losses could not be avoided. However, additionally tackling the drivers of land-use change could avoid conflict with affordable food provision and reduces the environmental effects of the food-provision system. Through further sustainable intensification and trade, reduced food waste and more plant-based human diets, more than two thirds of future biodiversity losses are avoided and the biodiversity trends from habitat conversion are reversed by 2050 for almost all of the models. Although limiting further loss will remain challenging in several biodiversity-rich regions, and other threats-such as climate change-must be addressed to truly reverse the declines in biodiversity, our results show that ambitious conservation efforts and food system transformation are central to an effective post-2020 biodiversity strategy. To promote the recovery of the currently declining global trends in terrestrial biodiversity, increases in both the extent of land under conservation management and the sustainability of the global food system from farm to fork are required.
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| 4. |
- MacDonald, Robert P., et al.
(författare)
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An Interactive Planetary Boundaries Systems Thinking Learning Tool to Integrate Sustainability into the Chemistry Curriculum
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of Chemical Education. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 0021-9584 .- 1938-1328. ; 99:10, s. 3530-3539
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Sustainability has a molecular basis that suggests a central role for chemistry in addressing today’s challenges to Earth and societal systems, and this role requires educators to see chemical reactions and processes as integral parts of dynamic and interconnected systems. Despite this prospect, few accessible resources are available for students and educators to facilitate systems thinking in chemistry for sustainability. We have developed an interactive digital learning tool (https://planetaryboundaries.kcvs.ca) based on the Planetary Boundaries framework, which uses interactive visualizations to help users better understand Earth system sustainability challenges and helps chemists and educators connect substances, reactions, and chemistry concepts to sustainability science. The tool highlights the fundamental role that chemistry plays in regulating the individual biophysical Earth system processes and in determining their control variables. It incorporates key features of a systems thinking framework by illustrating the dynamic interconnections among the processes and their control variables and demonstrates change of the Earth system over time. Finally, the interactive tool provides educators with accessible entry points to support the integration of chemistry curriculum content with sustainability considerations.
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| 5. |
- Ahlström, Hanna, et al.
(författare)
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Governance, polycentricity and the global nitrogen and phosphorus cycles
- 2018
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Ingår i: Environmental Science and Policy. - : Elsevier BV. - 1462-9011 .- 1873-6416. ; 79, s. 54-65
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Global change and governance scholars frequently highlight polycentricity as a feature of resilient governance, but both theoretical and empirical knowledge about features and outcomes of the concept are lacking at the global scale. Here we investigate the structural properties of governance of global nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) cycles, two processes in the 'planetary boundaries' framework. We have used a mixed-methods approach to institutional analysis, integrating polycentric theory with social network theory in environmental policy and legal studies. We include an actor collaboration case study, the Global Partnership on Nutrient Management (GPNM), to explore governance challenges associated with global N and P cycles. We set the scope for selection of relevant legal instruments using an overview of global N and P flows between Earth system 'components' (land, water, atmosphere, oceans, biosphere) and the major anthropogenic N and P perturbations. Our network analysis of citations of global N and P governance exposes the structural patterns of a loose network among the principal institutions and actors, in which legal instruments of the European Union serve as key cross-scale and cross-sectoral 'gateways'. We show that the current international regimes in place for regulating N- and P-related issues represent a gap in governance at the global level. In addition, we are able to show that the emergence of GPNM provides synergies in this context of insufficient governance. The GPNM can be viewed as a structure of polycentric governance as it involves deliberate attempts for mutual adjustments and self-organised action.
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| 6. |
- Armstrong McKay, David I., et al.
(författare)
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Exceeding 1.5°C global warming could trigger multiple climate tipping points
- 2022
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Ingår i: Science. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 0036-8075 .- 1095-9203. ; 377:6611
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Climate tipping points occur when change in a part of the climate system becomes self-perpetuating beyond a warming threshold, leading to substantial Earth system impacts. Synthesizing paleoclimate, observational, and model-based studies, we provide a revised shortlist of global “core” tipping elements and regional “impact” tipping elements and their temperature thresholds. Current global warming of ~1.1°C above preindustrial temperatures already lies within the lower end of some tipping point uncertainty ranges. Several tipping points may be triggered in the Paris Agreement range of 1.5 to <2°C global warming, with many more likely at the 2 to 3°C of warming expected on current policy trajectories. This strengthens the evidence base for urgent action to mitigate climate change and to develop improved tipping point risk assessment, early warning capability, and adaptation strategies.
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| 7. |
- Armstrong McKay, David I., et al.
(författare)
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Resolving ecological feedbacks on the ocean carbon sink in Earth system models
- 2021
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Ingår i: Earth System Dynamics. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 2190-4979 .- 2190-4987. ; 12:3, s. 797-818
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Earth's oceans are one of the largest sinks in the Earth system for anthropogenic CO2 emissions, acting as a negative feedback on climate change. Earth system models project that climate change will lead to a weakening ocean carbon uptake rate as warm water holds less dissolved CO2 and as biological productivity declines. However, most Earth system models do not incorporate the impact of warming on bacterial remineralisation and rely on simplified representations of plankton ecology that do not resolve the potential impact of climate change on ecosystem structure or elemental stoichiometry. Here, we use a recently developed extension of the cGEnIE (carbon-centric Grid Enabled Integrated Earth system model), ecoGEnIE, featuring a trait-based scheme for plankton ecology (ECOGEM), and also incorporate cGEnIE's temperature-dependent remineralisation (TDR) scheme. This enables evaluation of the impact of both ecological dynamics and temperature-dependent remineralisation on particulate organic carbon (POC) export in response to climate change. We find that including TDR increases cumulative POC export relative to default runs due to increased nutrient recycling (+ similar to 1.3 %), whereas ECOGEM decreases cumulative POC export by enabling a shift to smaller plankton classes (- similar to 0.9 %). However, interactions with carbonate chemistry cause opposite sign responses for the carbon sink in both cases: TDR leads to a smaller sink relative to default runs (- similar to 1.0 %), whereas ECOGEM leads to a larger sink (+ similar to 0.2 %). Combining TDR and ECOGEM results in a net strengthening of POC export (+ similar to 0.1 %) and a net reduction in carbon sink (- similar to 0.7 %) relative to default. These results illustrate the degree to which ecological dynamics and biodiversity modulate the strength of the biological pump, and demonstrate that Earth system models need to incorporate ecological complexity in order to resolve non-linear climate-biosphere feedbacks.
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| 8. |
- Bai, Xuemei, et al.
(författare)
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Translating Earth system boundaries for cities and businesses
- 2024
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Ingår i: Nature Sustainability. - 2398-9629. ; 7, s. 108-119
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Operating within safe and just Earth system boundaries requires mobilizing key actors across scale to set targets and take actions accordingly. Robust, transparent and fair cross-scale translation methods are essential to help navigate through the multiple steps of scientific and normative judgements in translation, with clear awareness of associated assumptions, bias and uncertainties. Here, through literature review and expert elicitation, we identify commonly used sharing approaches, illustrate ten principles of translation and present a protocol involving key building blocks and control steps in translation. We pay particular attention to businesses and cities, two understudied but critical actors to bring on board.
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| 9. |
- Butz, Christoph, et al.
(författare)
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Towards defining an environmental investment universe within planetary boundaries
- 2018
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Ingår i: Sustainability Science. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1862-4065 .- 1862-4057. ; 13:4, s. 1031-1044
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Science is increasingly able to identify precautionary boundaries for critical Earth system processes, and the business world provides societies with important means for adaptive responses to global environmental risks. In turn, investors provide vital leverage on companies. Here, we report on our transdisciplinary science/business experience in applying the planetary boundaries framework (sensu Rockstrom et al., Ecol Soc 14, 2009) to define a boundary-compatible investment universe and analyse the environmental compatibility of companies. We translate the planetary boundaries into limits for resource use and emissions per unit of economic value creation, using indicators from the Carnegie Mellon University EIO-LCA database. The resulting precautionary 'economic intensities' can be compared with the current levels of companies' environmental impact. This necessarily involves simplifying assumptions, for which dialogue between biophysical science, corporate sustainability and investment perspectives is needed. The simplifications mean that our translation is transparent from both biophysical and financial viewpoints, and allow our approach to be responsive to future developments in scientific insights about planetary boundaries. Our approach enables both sub-industries and individual companies to be screened against the planetary boundaries. Our preliminary application of this screening to the entire background universe of all investable stock-listed companies gives a selectivity of two orders of magnitude for an investment universe of environmentally attractive stocks. We discuss implications for an expanded role of environmental change science in the development of thematic equity funds.
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| 10. |
- Carney Almroth, Bethanie, et al.
(författare)
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Understanding and addressing the planetary crisis of chemicals and plastics
- 2022
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Ingår i: One Earth. - : Elsevier BV. - 2590-3330 .- 2590-3322. ; 5:10, s. 1070-1074
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Planetary functions are destabilized by the releases of large quantities and numbers of anthropogenic chemicals, which go beyond planetary boundaries and threaten the safe operating space for humanity. Here, we call for urgent action to mitigate these threats and identify opportunities for intervention along the impact pathway of anthropogenic chemicals, including plastics.
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| 11. |
- Collste, David, et al.
(författare)
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Human well-being in the Anthropocene : limits to growth
- 2021
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Ingår i: Global Sustainability. - : Cambridge University Press (CUP). - 2059-4798. ; 4
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Non-technical summary. Transformation of the world towards sustainability in line with the 2030 Agenda requires progress on multiple dimensions of human well-being. We track development of relevant indicators for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 1–7 against gross domestic product (GDP) per person in seven world regions and the world as a whole. Across the regions, we find uniform development patterns where SDGs 1–7 – and therefore main human needs – are achieved at around US$15,000 measured in 2011 US$ purchasing power parity (PPP).Technical summary. How does GDP per person relate to the achievement of well-being as targeted by the 2030 Agenda? The 2030 Agenda includes global ambitions to meet human needs and aspirations. However, these need to be met within planetary boundaries. In nascent world-earth modelling, human well-being as well as global environmental impacts are linked through economic production, which is tracked by GDP. We examined historic developments on 5-year intervals, 1980–2015, between average income and the advancement on indicators of SDGs 1–7. This was done for both seven world regions and the world as a whole. We find uniform patterns of saturation for all regions above an income threshold somewhere around US$15,000 measured in 2011 US$ PPP. At this level, main human needs and capabilities are met. The level is also consistent with studies of life satisfaction and the Easterlin paradox. We observe stark differences with respect to scale: the patterns of the world as an aggregated whole develop differently from all its seven regions, with implications for world-earth model construction – and sustainability transformations.Social media summary. Reaching human well-being #SDGs takes GDP levels of $15k. This may help shape transformation to a world that respects #PlanetaryBoundaries.
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| 12. |
- Collste, David, 1988-
(författare)
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Navigating towards the Safe Operating Space: Systems thinking and the SDGs
- 2019
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Can the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals be reached within the Planetary Boundaries? This licentiate thesis aims to explore this question by navigating towards the safe operating space, as defined by the planetary boundaries, through integrating issues, disciplines, scales, models and stakeholders. The thesis is a milestone within the European Union financed project “Adaptation to a New Economic Reality (AdaptEconII)”. Besides the SDGs and planetary boundaries, I embark from a curiosity about systems and their dynamics and explore the interface of system dynamics formalism and global social-ecological systems resilience applications. A practical aim is to also inform the SDG implementation process by guiding cross-scale SDG implementation through offering modeling insights (the Human Needs Paper II) and a stakeholder approach for goal implementation (the African Dialogue Paper I). In the African Dialogue paper, I present the first stakeholder-based approach of visioning and exploring Sustainable Development Pathways to meet the SDGs. I embark from the Three horizons framework - a participatory approach which involves participants in visioning and unpacking complex issues to elicit views about future aspirations, current challenges and pathways to addressing and achieving them. The paper first introduces how the Three horizons approach was built on, and adapted to, the 2030 Agenda. Together with the co-authors, I developed the method to enable addressing a spectrum of challenges for SDG implementation and incorporate alternative narratives with a wholistic view of the 2030 Agenda’s implementation. We wanted to facilitate the discovery of a few alternative pathways and include a discussion on global pathways to contrast them against. In the paper, I discuss the benefits and challenges of the adapted approach in relation to its implementation in an illustrative case study, the 2018 African Dialogue on The World In 2050, which deliberated on future pathways for agriculture and food systems in Africa. The process enabled discussions on commonalities and differences between a diversity of future visions for Africa, grounded in different cultural contexts, and their implications for the global scale. All four stakeholder groups included the importance of youth and women empowerment, and the need for climate adaptation to reach the SDGs in their pathways. The groups diverged when it came to whether future population growth should be seen as positive or negative for African futures, and whether agribusinesses or cooperatives should dominate the agricultural sector. The developed frame, Three Horizons for SDGs (3H4SDG), represents a versatile approach for a participatory design of future pathways to reach SDGs, inclusive to marginalized voices and facilitating a context-sensitive exploration of alternative futures. In the Human Needs paper, I accentuate that sustainability means meeting human needs now, and in the future. The 2030 Agenda’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represent global ambitions to meet human needs, but prospects are unclear for meeting SDGs without worsening environmental deterioration. In constructing a world model to explore SDG-related risks to Earth system resilience, I examined historic correlations, 1980-2015, between production measured as income per person and advancement on the human-needs goals, SDGs 1-7, for seven world regions and the world as a whole. In the paper I present uniform patterns of saturation for all regions above a clear income threshold – at a level where human needs and capabilities are met, consistent with happiness economics and the Easterlin paradox. I observe stark differences with respect to scale: the world as a whole behaves differently from all its seven regions. And I argue that these differences between historical regional patterns give vital hints on how SDGs can be reached within Earth’s safe operating space.
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| 13. |
- Collste, David, et al.
(författare)
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Policy coherence to achieve the SDGs : using integrated simulation models to assess effective policies
- 2017
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Ingår i: Sustainability Science. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1862-4065 .- 1862-4057. ; 12:6, s. 921-931
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Coherently addressing the 17 Sustainable Development Goals requires planning tools that guide policy makers. Given the integrative nature of the SDGs, we believe that integrative modelling techniques are especially useful for this purpose. In this paper, we present and demonstrate the use of the new System Dynamics based iSDG family of models. We use a national model for Tanzania to analyse impacts of substantial investments in photovoltaic capacity. Our focus is on the impacts on three SDGs: SDG 3 on healthy lives and well-being, SDG 4 on education, and SDG 7 on energy. In our simulations, the investments in photovoltaics positively affect life expectancy, years of schooling and access to electricity. More importantly, the progress on these dimensions synergizes and leads to broader system-wide impacts. While this one national example illustrates the anticipated impact of an intervention in one specific area on several SDGs, the iSDG model can be used to support similar analyses for policies related to all the 17 SDGs, both individually and concurrently. We believe that integrated models such as the iSDG model can bring interlinks to the forefront and facilitate a shift to a discussion on development grounded in systems thinking.
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| 14. |
- Collste, David, et al.
(författare)
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Regional Achievements of Well‑being SDGs in the Anthropocene
-
Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Achieving human development in the Anthopocene necessitates rethinking sustainability. Prospects are unclear for attaining the well-being oriented SDGs without further worsening environmental deterioration, thereby threatening the success of the whole 2030 Agenda. Nascent World-Earth modelling efforts link human well-being with global environmental impacts through economic production, which is tracked by GDP - in modelling and real-world decision-making alike. This raises the question of how GDP per person relates to achievement of well-being as targeted by the SDGs. We examined historic correlations on five-year intervals, 1980-2015, between average income and the advancement on indicators on SDGs 1 to 7. This was done both for seven world regions and the world as a whole. We find uniform patterns of saturation for all regions above a clear income threshold around US$15 000 measured in 2011 US$ purchasing power parity (PPP)– a level where main human needs and capabilities are met, consistent with studies of life satisfaction and the Easterlin paradox. We observe stark differences with respect to scale: the patterns of the world as an aggregated whole develop differently from all its seven regions. And we argue that these differences between historical regional patterns give vital hints on how SDGs can be achieved within Earth’s safe operating space – and how a stationary-state economy could be realized.
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| 15. |
- Collste, David, 1988-
(författare)
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The Indivisible 2030 Agenda : Systems analysis for sustainability
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In 2015 the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda with 17 global sustainable development goals (SDGs) to shift the world onto a sustainable path. By referring to the SDGs as indivisible, the Agenda emphasises the interdependence of social and ecological concerns. But what does it mean that the goals are interdependent and how is indivisibility to be handled in research and implementation?In this dissertation, I investigate how models and participatory methods grounded in systems thinking can be used to facilitate the understanding and realisation of the 2030 Agenda. The dissertation explores and examines: (a) how system dynamics models can be used to represent integrated goals and their synergies at multiple levels, (b) how human well-being can be more inclusively integrated into systems models, and (c) how systems approaches can help to bridge local aspirations to global sustainability goals, incorporating multiple values and worldviews in the operationalisation of the Agenda.
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| 16. |
- Cornell, Sarah E.
(författare)
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Assessment and Characterisation of the Organic Component of Atmospheric Nitrogen Deposition
- 2014
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Ingår i: Nitrogen Deposition, Critical Loads and Biodiversity. - Dordrecht : Springer Science+Business Media B.V.. - 9789400779389 - 9789400779396 ; , s. 107-116
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The organic component of atmospheric reactive nitrogen is known to be important for biogeochemical cycles, climate and ecosystems, but it is still not routinely assessed in atmospheric deposition studies, and most worldwide air quality monitoring networks disregard it. The available jigsaw puzzle pieces of knowledge from diverse sources can now give a richer picture of global patterns of organic nitrogen deposition. This effort at data synthesis highlights the need for more data, but also suggests where those data gathering efforts should be focused. The development of new analytical techniques allows long-standing conjectures about the nature and sources of the organic matter to be investigated, with tantalising indications of the complex interplay between natural and anthropogenic sources, and links between the nitrogen and carbon cycles. Atmospheric emission and deposition models are needed, along with new chemical process models, to let us explore questions about the role and dynamics of organic nitrogen.
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| 17. |
- Cornell, Sarah E., 1969-
(författare)
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We need to talk about gender in the 'safe operating space for humanity'
- 2022
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Ingår i: Innovating Business for Sustainability. - Cheltenham/Northampton : Edward Elgar Publishing. - 9781839101311 - 9781839101328 ; , s. 18-46
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The planetary boundaries framework highlights critical global environmental processes where society's activities are altering Earth system risks. As businesses increasingly seek to apply the framework, more attention should be given to gender in the knowledge-action interplay of its scientific methodology, the discursive production of the framework's 'safe operating space for humanity', and its institutional operationalization. Here I view the framework through a gender lens, with a focus on four aspects of the knowledge-action system: perceptions and visibility of gender in the scientific underpinnings of the framework; power and control in 'safe operating space' discourses; policies and institutions relevant to governance of Planetary Boundaries processes; and the praxis of sustainability responses to the framework's call to action on global megatrends. In examining how social drivers are described and solutions are presented, we can assess whether a gendered view expands the scope for societies to respond to today's unsustainable megatrends.
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| 18. |
- Dearing, John A., et al.
(författare)
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Safe and just operating spaces for regional social-ecological systems
- 2014
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Ingår i: Global Environmental Change. - : Elsevier BV. - 0959-3780 .- 1872-9495. ; 28, s. 227-238
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Humanity faces a major global challenge in achieving wellbeing for all, while simultaneously ensuring that the biophysical processes and ecosystem services that underpin wellbeing are exploited within scientifically informed boundaries of sustainability. We propose a framework for defining the safe and just operating space for humanity that integrates social wellbeing into the original planetary boundaries concept (Rockstrom et al., 2009a,b) for application at regional scales. We argue that such a framework can: (1) increase the policy impact of the boundaries concept as most governance takes place at the regional rather than planetary scale; (2) contribute to the understanding and dissemination of complexity thinking throughout governance and policy-making; (3) act as a powerful metaphor and communication tool for regional equity and sustainability. We demonstrate the approach in two rural Chinese localities where we define the safe and just operating space that lies between an environmental ceiling and a social foundation from analysis of time series drawn from monitored and palaeoecological data, and from social survey statistics respectively. Agricultural intensification has led to poverty reduction, though not eradicated it, but at the expense of environmental degradation. Currently, the environmental ceiling is exceeded for degraded water quality at both localities even though the least well-met social standards are for available piped water and sanitation. The conjunction of these social needs and environmental constraints around the issue of water access and quality illustrates the broader value of the safe and just operating space approach for sustainable development.
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| 19. |
- Donges, Jonathan, et al.
(författare)
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Taxonomies for structuring models for World-Earth systems analysis of the Anthropocene : subsystems, their interactions and social-ecological feedback loops
- 2021
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Ingår i: Earth System Dynamics. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 2190-4979 .- 2190-4987. ; 12:4, s. 1115-1137
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In the Anthropocene, the social dynamics of human societies have become critical to understanding planetary-scale Earth system dynamics. The conceptual foundations of Earth system modelling have externalised social processes in ways that now hinder progress in understanding Earth resilience and informing governance of global environmental change. New approaches to global modelling of the human World are needed to address these challenges. The current modelling landscape is highly diverse and heterogeneous, ranging from purely biophysical Earth system models, to hybrid macro-economic integrated assessments models, to a plethora of models of socio-cultural dynamics. World-Earth models capable of simulating complex and entangled human-Earth system processes of the Anthropocene are currently not available. They will need to draw on and selectively integrate elements from the diverse range of fields and approaches; thus, future World-Earth modellers require a structured approach to identify, classify, select, combine and critique model components from multiple modelling traditions. Here, we develop taxonomies for ordering the multitude of societal and biophysical subsystems and their interactions. We suggest three taxa for modelled subsystems: (i) biophysical, where dynamics is usually represented by natural laws of physics, chemistry or ecology (i.e. the usual components of Earth system models); (ii) socio-cultural, dominated by processes of human behaviour, decision-making and collective social dynamics (e.g. politics, institutions, social networks and even science itself); and (iii) socio-metabolic, dealing with the material interactions of social and biophysical subsystems (e.g. human bodies, natural resources and agriculture). We show how higher-order taxonomies can be derived for classifying and describing the interactions between two or more subsystems. This then allows us to highlight the kinds of social-ecological feedback loops where new modelling efforts need to be directed. As an example, we apply the taxonomy to a stylised World-Earth system model that endogenises the socially transmitted choice of discount rates in a greenhouse gas emissions game to illustrate the effects of social-ecological feedback loops that are usually not considered in current modelling efforts. The proposed taxonomy can contribute to guiding the design and operational development of more comprehensive World-Earth models for understanding Earth resilience and charting sustainability transitions within planetary boundaries and other future trajectories in the Anthropocene.
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| 20. |
- Downing, Andrea S., et al.
(författare)
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Learning from generations of sustainability concepts
- 2020
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Ingår i: Environmental Research Letters. - : IOP Publishing. - 1748-9326. ; 15:8
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: For decades, scientists have attempted to provide a sustainable development framework that integrates goals of environmental protection and human development. The Planetary Boundaries concept (PBc)-a framework to guide sustainable development-juxtaposes a 'safe operating space for humanity' and 'planetary boundaries', to achieve a goal that decades of research have yet to meet. We here investigate if PBc is sufficiently different to previous sustainability concepts to have the intended impact, and map how future sustainability concept developments might make a difference. Design: We build a genealogy of the research that is cited in and informs PBc. We analyze this genealogy with the support of two seminal and a new consumer-resource models, that provide simple and analytically tractable analogies to human-environment relationships. These models bring together environmental limits, minimum requirements for populations and relationships between resource-limited and waste-limited environments. Results: PBc is based on coherent knowledge about sustainability that has been in place in scientific and policy contexts since the 1980s. PBc represents the ultimate framing of limits to the use of the environment, as limits not to single resources, but to Holocene-like Earth system dynamics. Though seldom emphasized, the crux of the limits to sustainable environmental dynamics lies in waste (mis-)management, which sets where boundary values might be. Minimum requirements for populations are under-defined: it is the distribution of resources, opportunities and waste that shape what is a safe space and for whom. Discussion: We suggest that PBc is not different or innovative enough to break 'Cassandra's dilemma' and ensure scientific research effectively guides humanity towards sustainable development. For this, key issues of equality must be addressed, un-sustainability must be framed as a problem of today, rather than projected into the future, and scientific foundations of frameworks such as PBc must be broadened and diversified.
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| 21. |
- Downing, Andrea S., et al.
(författare)
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Matching scope, purpose and uses of planetary boundaries science
- 2019
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Ingår i: Environmental Research Letters. - : IOP Publishing. - 1748-9326. ; 14:7
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: The Planetary Boundaries concept (PBc) has emerged as a key global sustainability concept in international sustainable development arenas. Initially presented as an agenda for global sustainability research, it now shows potential for sustainability governance. Weuse the fact that it is widely cited in scientific literature (>3500 citations) and an extensively studied concept to analyse how it has been used and developed since its first publication. Design: From the literature that cites the PBc, we select those articles that have the terms 'planetary boundaries' or 'safe operating space' in either title, abstract or keywords. Weassume that this literature substantively engages with and develops the PBc. Results: Wefind that 6% of the citing literature engages with the concept. Within this fraction of the literature we distinguish commentaries-that discuss the context and challenges to implementing the PBc, articles that develop the core biogeophysical concept and articles that apply the concept by translating to sub-global scales and by adding a human component to it. Applied literature adds to the concept by explicitly including society through perspectives of impacts, needs, aspirations and behaviours. Discussion: Literature applying the concept does not yet include the more complex, diverse, cultural and behavioural facet of humanity that is implied in commentary literature. Wesuggest there is need for a positive framing of sustainability goals-as a Safe Operating Space rather than boundaries. Key scientific challenges include distinguishing generalised from context-specific knowledge, clarifying which processes are generalizable and which are scalable, and explicitly applying complex systems' knowledge in the application and development of the PBc. We envisage that opportunities to address these challenges will arise when more human social dimensions are integrated, as we learn to feed the global sustainability vision with a plurality of bottom-up realisations of sustainability.
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| 22. |
- Edwards, Mark G., et al.
(författare)
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Management Education and Earth System Science : Transformation as if Planetary Boundaries Mattered
- 2021
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Ingår i: Business & society. - : SAGE Publications. - 0007-6503 .- 1552-4205. ; 60:1, s. 26-56
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Earth system science (ESS) has identified worrying trends in the human impact on fundamental planetary systems. In this conceptual article, we discuss the implications of this research for business schools and management education (ME). We argue that ESS findings raise significant concerns about the relationship between business and nature and, consequently, a radical reframing is required to embed economic and social activity within the global sustainability of natural systems. This has transformative implications for ME. To illustrate this reframing, we apply the ESS lenses of social-ecological interdependence, multiscalar relations, environmental governance, and environmental values to the ME functional domains of institutional purpose, social context and engagement, pedagogical practice, curricular design, and research focus. Our work contributes to the literature on business education for sustainability and the business-society-nature nexus. We explore and apply key ESS findings and concepts, discuss normative implications of these ideas, and offer guidance on transformational pathways for business schools and ME.
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| 23. |
- Engström, Rebecka Ericsdotter, et al.
(författare)
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Succeeding at home and abroad: accounting for the international spillovers of cities’ SDG actions
- 2021
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Ingår i: npj Urban Sustainability. - : Springer Nature. - 2661-8001. ; 1:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Cities are vital for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), but different local strategies to advance on the same SDG may cause different ‘spillovers’ elsewhere. Research efforts that support governance of such spillovers are urgently needed to empower ambitious cities to ‘account globally’ when acting locally on SDG implementation strategies.
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| 24. |
- Gleeson, Tom, et al.
(författare)
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Illuminating water cycle modifications and Earth system resilience in the Anthropocene
- 2020
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Ingår i: Water resources research. - 0043-1397 .- 1944-7973. ; 56:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Fresh water—the bloodstream of the biosphere—is at the center of the planetary drama of the Anthropocene. Water fluxes and stores regulate the Earth's climate and are essential for thriving aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, as well as water, food, and energy security. But the water cycle is also being modified by humans at an unprecedented scale and rate. A holistic understanding of freshwater's role for Earth system resilience and the detection and monitoring of anthropogenic water cycle modifications across scales is urgent, yet existing methods and frameworks are not well suited for this. In this paper we highlight four core Earth system functions of water (hydroclimatic regulation, hydroecological regulation, storage, and transport) and key related processes. Building on systems and resilience theory, we review the evidence of regional‐scale regime shifts and disruptions of the Earth system functions of water. We then propose a framework for detecting, monitoring, and establishing safe limits to water cycle modifications and identify four possible spatially explicit methods for their quantification. In sum, this paper presents an ambitious scientific and policy grand challenge that could substantially improve our understanding of the role of water in the Earth system and cross‐scale management of water cycle modifications that would be a complementary approach to existing water management tools.
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| 25. |
- Green, C., et al.
(författare)
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A Horizon Scan to Support Chemical Pollution-Related Policymaking for Sustainable and Climate-Resilient Economies
- 2023
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Ingår i: Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. - : Wiley. - 0730-7268 .- 1552-8618. ; 42:6, s. 1212-1228
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- While chemicals are vital to modern society through materials, agriculture, textiles, new technology, medicines, and consumer goods, their use is not without risks. Unfortunately, our resources seem inadequate to address the breadth of chemical challenges to the environment and human health. Therefore, it is important we use our intelligence and knowledge wisely to prepare for what lies ahead. The present study used a Delphi-style approach to horizon-scan future chemical threats that need to be considered in the setting of chemicals and environmental policy, which involved a multidisciplinary, multisectoral, and multinational panel of 25 scientists and practitioners (mainly from the United Kingdom, Europe, and other industrialized nations) in a three-stage process. Fifteen issues were shortlisted (from a nominated list of 48), considered by the panel to hold global relevance. The issues span from the need for new chemical manufacturing (including transitioning to non-fossil-fuel feedstocks); challenges from novel materials, food imports, landfills, and tire wear; and opportunities from artificial intelligence, greater data transparency, and the weight-of-evidence approach. The 15 issues can be divided into three classes: new perspectives on historic but insufficiently appreciated chemicals/issues, new or relatively new products and their associated industries, and thinking through approaches we can use to meet these challenges. Chemicals are one threat among many that influence the environment and human health, and interlinkages with wider issues such as climate change and how we mitigate these were clear in this exercise. The horizon scan highlights the value of thinking broadly and consulting widely, considering systems approaches to ensure that interventions appreciate synergies and avoid harmful trade-offs in other areas. We recommend further collaboration between researchers, industry, regulators, and policymakers to perform horizon scanning to inform policymaking, to develop our ability to meet these challenges, and especially to extend the approach to consider also concerns from countries with developing economies. Environ Toxicol Chem 2023;00:1-17. (c) 2023 Crown copyright and The Authors. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of SETAC. This article is published with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the King's Printer for Scotland.
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