Living well within the limits of our planet – how can the Planetary Boundaries help operationalize this vision for Europe?

This research paper explores how the Planetary Boundaries framework—which defines a global "safe operating space" through quantitative limits on Earth system processes—can be operationalized for Europe. The study specifically analyzes the EU-28 across six boundaries: climate change, biosphere integrity, land systems change, freshwater use, biogeochemical flows, and novel entities.

• The Planetary Boundaries framework establishes quantitative limits for human interference with critical Earth system processes to define a global "safe operating space" for human activity. Exceeding these boundaries on a global scale raises the risk of irreversible or abrupt large-scale environmental changes.
• The study performed an initial benchmarking, allocation, and disaggregation analysis for the EU-28 regarding six specific planetary boundaries: novel entities (chemical pollution), biogeochemical flows (phosphorus and nitrogen), freshwater use, land systems change, biosphere integrity, and climate change.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2018). Living well within the limits of our planet – how can the Planetary Boundaries help operationalize this vision for Europe? https://www.sei.org/publications/operationalizing-concept-safe-operating-space-eu/

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Living well within the limits of our planet – how can the Planetary Boundaries help operationalize this vision for Europe? 2018. https://www.sei.org/publications/operationalizing-concept-safe-operating-space-eu/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Living well within the limits of our planet – how can the Planetary Boundaries help operationalize this vision for Europe? |date=3 July 2018 |url=https://www.sei.org/publications/operationalizing-concept-safe-operating-space-eu/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2018living, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Living well within the limits of our planet – how can the Planetary Boundaries help operationalize this vision for Europe?}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2018}, month = jul, url = {https://www.sei.org/publications/operationalizing-concept-safe-operating-space-eu/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }