The Concept of Planetary Boundaries for Sustainable Development: A Review

Abstract

The concept of the planetary boundaries (PB) is a reasonable scientific approach towards achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs). It started in 2009 with a group of scientists at the Stockholm Resilience Center (SRC) in Sweden with the aim of showing a safe operating space for human development and wellbeing through scientific research by quantifying what they refer to as “planetary boundaries”. But in other for the concept of the PB to thoroughly address the matters of the SDGs which does not only include environmental sustainability but also social issues, human prosperity, and governance, the concept of the PB has in combination with social boundaries and governance approaches created a sphere of reasonable ideas towards achieving the SDGs. The sustainable development trajectories of the PB comprising of six major structural transformations ensures that the world continues to develop economically while staying within planetary boundaries. Therefore, it has to take the cooperative efforts of all nations in the world to tackle, and to mitigate the overwhelming effects we have caused on our “good planet”. Humans should realize that our planet has tried in all its “resilient capabilities “to condone all our exploitations, but it seems we have squeezed it too much and it is deflating. We need to build resilience to the unexpected (resilience thinking); we need to be prepared for the unexpected, both to be able to cope with “shocks” and to take advantage of “potentially positive surprises.” This review tries to put together the different research ideas towards achieving the aim of the concept of the PB.

Keywords: Planetary Boundaries, Social Boundaries, Earth System Governance, SDGs

DOI: 10.7176/JLPG/112-21

Publication date:August 31^st 2021