Signal Even coordinated action leaves three boundaries breached in 2050

Summary

The report holds that the planetary boundaries should be measured one by one but not managed as nine separate policy targets. A broad scenario analysis showed that coordinated action on climate, diets, land, water and nutrient efficiency could sharply cut pressure on eight of the boundaries assessed. Even so, climate change, biosphere integrity and biogeochemical flows were still outside the safe operating space in 2050. The report attributes this partly to the slow response of environmental systems and to losses that cannot be undone quickly. Understanding how the boundaries connect, it explains, makes it possible to tackle shared drivers and to find interventions that help several boundaries at once. The report stresses that the safe operating space is ultimately a property of the Earth system as a whole.