Keeping the global consumption within the planetary boundaries

Tian, Peipei; Zhong, Honglin; Chen, Xiangjie; Feng, Kuishuang; Sun, Laixiang; Zhang, Ning; Shao, Xuan; Liu, Yu; Hubacek, Klaus

Abstract

The disparity in environmental impacts across different countries has been widely acknowledged1, 2. However, ascertaining the specific responsibility within the complex interactions of economies and consumption groups remains a challenging endeavour3–5. Here, using an expenditure database that includes up to 201 consumption groups across 168 countries, we investigate the distribution of 6 environmental footprint indicators and assess the impact of specific consumption expenditures on planetary boundary transgressions. We show that 31–67% and 51–91% of the planetary boundary breaching responsibility could be attributed to the global top 10% and top 20% of consumers, respectively, from both developed and developing countries. By following an effective mitigation pathway, the global top 20% of consumers could adopt the consumption levels and patterns that have the lowest environmental impacts within their quintile, yielding a reduction of 25–53% in environmental pressure. In this scenario, actions focused solely on the food and services sectors would reduce environmental pressure enough to bring land-system change and biosphere integrity back within their respective planetary boundaries. Our study highlights the critical need to focus on high-expenditure consumers for effectively addressing planetary boundary transgressions.

Citation

Tian, P., Zhong, H., Chen, X., Feng, K., Sun, L., Zhang, N., Shao, X., Liu, Y., & Hubacek, K. (2024). Keeping the global consumption within the planetary boundaries. Nature, 635(8039), 625-630. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08154-w

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 4, 2024
• Publication Date: Nov 13, 2024
• Deposit Date: Nov 23, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 23, 2024
• Journal: Nature
• Print ISSN: 0028-0836
• Electronic ISSN: 1476-4687
• Publisher: Nature Research
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 635
• Issue: 8039
• Pages: 625-630
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08154-w
• Publisher URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08154-w
• Related Public URLs: https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs41586-024-08154-w/MediaObjects/41586_2024_8154_MOESM1_ESM.pdf