School of Humanities and Social Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen 518172, China; Sustainability Assessment Program (SAP), School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UNSW Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.
Sustainability Assessment Program (SAP), School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UNSW Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.
Environ Int. 2021 Jul;152:106475. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2021.106475. Epub 2021 Mar 13.
The idea of revisiting the biophysical limits of human life on planet Earth has gained renewed momentum in the Anthropocene. The planetary boundaries (PBs) framework has emerged as a strong guardrail concept, even though its capacity to inform the development of absolute sustainability assessments and realistic policies remains unclear. In this paper, we present a current synthesis of the development of absolute environmental sustainability (AES) indicators and assessments informed by PBs. We firstly explore how PBs have been considered in AES research at different scales. We then present a critique of how consensus could be reached in standardising and harmonising the share of globally and locally allocated safe operating spaces. We argue that PBs must be linked to human consumption as the main socio-economic driver and that planetary concerns can only be addressed through a holistic perspective that encompasses global tele-connections. Based on our findings, we provide recommendations for the future design of AES indicators and assessments informed by PBs.
在人类世，重新审视地球上人类生命的生物物理极限的想法重新获得了动力。尽管其为制定绝对可持续性评估和现实政策提供信息的能力尚不清楚，但行星边界（PBs）框架已成为一个强有力的护栏概念。在本文中，我们介绍了由 PBs 提供信息的绝对环境可持续性（AES）指标和评估的最新综合发展。我们首先探讨了 PBs 在不同尺度的 AES 研究中是如何被考虑的。然后，我们对如何在标准化和协调全球和本地分配的安全运行空间方面达成共识提出了批评。我们认为，必须将 PBs 与人类消费联系起来，作为主要的社会经济驱动因素，只有通过包含全球远程连接的整体观点，才能解决行星问题。基于我们的发现，我们为未来由 PBs 提供信息的 AES 指标和评估的设计提供了建议。
