Earth system boundaries and Earth system justice: sharing the ecospace

The literature on planetary and Earth system boundaries calls on humans to live within those boundaries. Sharing such limited ecospace raises questions of justice. Global environmental assessments and scholarship are increasingly paying attention to justice issues, yet inadequately define how to share the limited ecospace. Against this background we ask: how can global environmental assessments' concerns for justice be enhanced through an Earth system justice framework that guides how the global community could share limited ecospace? Based on an analysis of how justice concerns are addressed in the Assessment of Assessments and global environmental change projects, we build an Earth system justice framework that discusses how ecospace can be shared fairly through the setting of Earth system boundaries and the provision of minimum resource needs for all, and how this can be achieved through an equitable redistribution of resources, rights, and responsibilities focused on addressing inequality, overconsumption, and harmful accumulation.

Automated summary

This passage discusses the inadequacy of global environmental assessments in addressing justice issues and proposes an Earth system justice framework as a guide for sharing limited ecospace in the global community. By analyzing how justice concerns are addressed in environmental assessments and global environmental change projects, an Earth system justice framework is developed, which focuses on achieving fair sharing of ecospace through setting Earth system boundaries and providing minimum resource needs, and addressing inequality, overconsumption, and harmful accumulation through equitable redistribution of resources, rights, and responsibilities.