ABSTRACT
The list, summarized in Table 9.1, is compiled from an amalgamation and adaptation of two excellent models for thinking about the sustainability challenge on a global scale. The first, known as the IPAT equation, dates from the 1970s and is still in use today. The second, the Princeton Wedges, is from a more modern but nevertheless helpful way of identifying areas for action that, as an ensemble and interactively, would add up to sustainable development. From IPAT comes the grand lines that will take us from here to sustainability. The Princeton Wedges provide the principle that taking action on several fronts at once increases the chances of success. Originally designed around big energy solutions, the Princeton Wedges identified several ‘candidate actions’. Pursuing several ‘wedges’ of them at once makes it more likely that some (either entirely or in part) will work out and thus add up to the desired target. There is absolutely no need to worry about overshoot here. So advanced are the symptoms of unsustainable development, it would only be a benefit. The bigger danger is undershoot through lack of imagination and effort. If you are unfamiliar with either model, you may wish to turn to page 250 first. The Global Sustainability To Do List https://www.niso.org/standards/z39-96/ns/oasis-exchange/table">
N
Grow nature’s capacity to help
Halt degradation and instead grow natural capital by 25% from now to 2050
+ Reduce tropical deforestation to zero, establish 300 million hectares of new tree plantations
+ Stop degradation and instead increase fraction of all terrestrial and marine biomes returned to original state (in urban as well as rural and wilderness areas)
+ Make it easier for water to get into aquifers and irrigation systems
+ Boost soil fertility – for food and to capture and store carbon
+ At least double the area of the Earth under sustainability conservation measures particularly for freshwater, marine and especially vulnerable and neglected land areas
P
Reduce numbers of people
Hit the lower UN world population prediction of 8 billion by 2050+ Provide universal and easy access to appropriate contraceptive materials
-Bring fertility rates well under replacement levels in affluent countries, and at least halve current fertility rates in poorer countries
+ Improve reproductive health for women and men worldwide
+ Invest in women as those best able to determine their children’s destiny
+ Value older people, make the most of their wisdom and experience
H
Grow human and social capital
Increase individual and communal sense of well-being by ( say ) 50% from today’s levels by 2050
+ Provide universal health care and education
+ Provide knowledge and skills for successful personal relationships and social participation
+ Grow resilience of communities and neighbourhoods
+ Reform, develop and strengthen social institutions
+ Increase sense of security – of place and in international relations
A
Reduce overall consumption of energy and raw materials
Shrink human ‘take’ of ( non-solar ) energy and raw materials by 25% from today’s levels by 2050 ( i.e. leave it in the ground )
-Converge water used per person round a healthy optimum
-Converge calorie intake of affluent and poor around a healthy optimum
-Reduce absolute amount of energy needed for heat, power and light
-Reduce absolute amount of minerals and other materials taken from the ground
-Shrink land take for human infrastructure (built environment and agriculture)
T
Grow efficiency/effectiveness of any energy and raw materials consumption
Squeeze all waste and inefficiency out of energy ( including solar ) and materials use, by ( say ) 50% from today’s levels by 2050
+ Increase efficiency of use for water that is used
+ Increase efficiency of use for all raw materials that are used
+ Ensure extreme efficiency in provision of all energy services – heat, power and light
+ Make all goods and services exchanged ultra-efficient in their use of carbon
+ Treat food production, like all land and marine resources, as part of an efficient ecological economy rather that as an industry
