GTAP Resources: Resource Display
| GTAP Resource #7214 |
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"An Economic Perspective on Planetary Boundaries" by Barbier, Edward Abstract In the current era of ecological scarcity and rising global environmental risks, there are increasing calls for “limits” on economic activity. Most notable is the advocacy by some scientists of planetary boundaries to protect key Earth system processes from human impacts. This paper reviews the economic implications of such an approach. From an economic perspective, planetary boundaries represent both a relative and absolute scarcity problem. Imposing such absolute limits (planetary boundaries) may be necessary to avoid transgressing key thresholds, but it is not sufficient. The failure to tackle the underpricing and underfunding of nature lies at the heart of the growing relative ecological scarcity problem and makes keeping within absolute limits unattainable. This perspective is discussed in the context of global land use change and biodiversity loss: the 30% rule adopted by the Global Biodiversity Framework (absolute limit) and the underpricing and underfunding of nature (relative scarcity). The example of global tropical peatlands is used to illustrate how this perspective can translate into a policy strategy. In this new era of ecological scarcity, rising global environmental risks and planetary boundaries, economics has three important roles: more robust modeling of the environmental impacts to incorporate risk and uncertainty; valuing ecological capital (including restored capital) and its services; and helping to formulate policies that end the underpricing and underfunding of nature. |
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- Ecosystem services and biodiversity - Environmental policies - Land use - Sustainable development - Global |
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Public Access  Paper (174.4 KB) Replicated: 0 time(s)Restricted Access No documents have been attached. Special Instructions No instructions have been specified. |
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Last Modified: 9/15/2023 2:05:45 PM
