Identifying a Safe and Just Corridor for People and the Planet

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Rockström, J
Gupta, J
Lenton, TM
Qin, D
Lade, SJ
Abrams, JF
Jacobson, L
Rocha, JC
Zimm, C
Bai, X
Bala, G
Bringezu, S
Broadgate, W
Bunn, SE
et al.
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2021
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Abstract

Keeping the Earth system in a stable and resilient state, to safeguard Earth's life support systems while ensuring that Earth's benefits, risks, and related responsibilities are equitably shared, constitutes the grand challenge for human development in the Anthropocene. Here, we describe a framework that the recently formed Earth Commission will use to define and quantify target ranges for a “safe and just corridor” that meets these goals. Although “safe” and “just” Earth system targets are interrelated, we see safe as primarily referring to a stable Earth system and just targets as being associated with meeting human needs and reducing exposure to risks. To align safe and just dimensions, we propose to address the equity dimensions of each safe target for Earth system regulating systems and processes. The more stringent of the safe or just target ranges then defines the corridor. Identifying levers of social transformation aimed at meeting the safe and just targets and challenges associated with translating the corridor to actors at multiple scales present scope for future work.

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Earth's Future

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9

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4

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© 2021. The Authors. Earth's Future published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Geophysical Union. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Atmospheric sciences

Physical geography and environmental geoscience

Climate change science

Hydrology

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Rockström, J; Gupta, J; Lenton, TM; Qin, D; Lade, SJ; Abrams, JF; Jacobson, L; Rocha, JC; Zimm, C; Bai, X; Bala, G; Bringezu, S; Broadgate, W; Bunn, SE; et al.; Winkelmann, R, Identifying a Safe and Just Corridor for People and the Planet, Earth's Future, 2021, 9 (4), pp. e2020EF001866

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