Human Progress within Planetary Guard Rails

The United Nations' Millennium Development Goals are to be superseded next year by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are as a result currently dominating debates on development policy worldwide. The German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) published a policy paper on this subject which was presented to the German Federal Government today.

The WBGU recommends the inclusion of a comprehensive environmental goal entitled "safeguarding Earth system services" in the catalogue of new sustainable development goals (SDGs). The aim of this goal is to bring development paths in line with ecological boundaries, so that human progress can be ensured. In order to operationalize this goal, the WBGU recommends integrating six targets to protect the climate, the soils and biological diversity.

The WGBU points out that compliance with ecological boundaries in the form of planetary guard rails is a prerequisite for poverty eradication and development. Taking them into account does not imply restrictions on the future development of the poorest 2 billion people. Rather, in the long term development will only be possible within planetary guard rails. Consumption decisions and lifestyles of the middle and upper classes are causing the greatest threat to the natural life-support systems, e.g. as a result of their high level of resource consumption or high per-capita CO2 emissions. Policy-makers therefore have a responsibility to create the necessary requirements for sustainable production and consumption patterns. Finally the WGBU states that Planetary guard rails highlight the need for international cooperation.

The policy paper "Human progress within planetary guard rails: A contribution to the SDG debate" is available at the WGBU website.