Issue Justice dimension: harm to vulnerable people below the safe limits

Summary

In 2023 the Earth Commission built on the planetary boundaries to publish safe and just Earth system boundaries, adding thresholds to avoid significant harm to people and ecosystems and minimum access levels for a dignified life. While the safe climate boundary is 1.5°C of warming, vulnerable communities already suffer severe harm below that, so the just boundary is set more strictly at 1.0°C. Even that level is well above the warmest temperatures since human civilization began to develop. Although the two frameworks developed their control variables and measurements separately, they broadly agree on which boundaries are transgressed. In extreme weather, too, other breaches such as land and freshwater change heighten the vulnerability and exposure of marginalized and disadvantaged groups. The report warns that unless adaptation strategies prioritize intersecting vulnerabilities rooted in gender, occupation, migration and economic status, extremes will keep hitting the most marginalized hardest.