Abstract
Most of the conventional environmental sustainability assessment methods, such as Life Cycle Assessment and environmental footprints, evaluate economic goods and services in terms of the nature or the function of the studied systems. As such, these methods overlook the variations in the overall magnitude of production and consumption patterns for the examined systems. As a result, the progress achieved in mitigating global environmental problems is likely to be slow and may be insignificant. Hence this study explores the interlinkages between the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Planetary Boundaries (PBs) using an DPSIR (Drivers-Pressures-State of the Environment-Impacts-Responses) impact pathway framework—in support of developing an absolute sustainability assessment method (ASAM). The study demonstrates that there is a substantial overlap between the SDGs and PBs. The science-based thresholds listed in the PBs can therefore be adopted as a complementary set of environmental boundaries for the SDG indicators. Overall, the study lays the foundation for advancing an ASAM that can guide policy- and decision-makers to operationalize the SDGs effectively.
Highlights
The Planetary Boundaries (PBs) concept was introduced by Rockström and his associates [1], and was updated by Steffen et al [2]
There are some overlaps between the above-listed three PBs and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) indicators, it would not be advisable to use them in a complementary way for the following reasons: (i) existence of an enormous number of hazardous substances; (ii) no SDG indicators directly assess the effects of ozone depletion; (iii) no control variables and thresholds have been proposed for the “introduction of novel entities” PB; (iv) the effects of some substances are still unknown, and some effects are not readily reversible; and (v) the PBs are located closer to the original activities that cause the environmental impacts, whereas the SDGs focus on waste management, and are generally located at the response point [2]
The study underpins the development of an absolute sustainability assessment method (ASAM) framework by systematically exploring the interlinkages between the SDGs and PBs using an DPSIR impact pathway framework
Summary
The Planetary Boundaries (PBs) concept was introduced by Rockström and his associates [1], and was updated by Steffen et al [2]. The safe operating space refers to a relatively stable state called the Holocene epoch, in which human societies can continue to develop and thrive [2] Today, both the scientific and political communities have agreed upon the notion that there are global limits for the Earth system and they should be respected. One contributing factor is that conventional ESAMs like LCA do not benchmark the environmental sustainability performance of a system against a set of environmental boundaries (or standards) Instead, they rank a particular system in relative terms, by comparing it with a reference system that is relevant to the nature or the function of the system under investigation, and the variations in the consumption and production patterns of the examined products and services are overlooked [7–9].
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