One Planet Living: How To Transition To A Green And Fair Economy And Stay Within Planetary Boundaries

Sue Riddlestone, Co-Founder, Bioregional

Paper Summary

If everyone lived the global middle class lifestyle of London or Shanghai we would need three planets to support us. And yet, the average citizen of Bangladesh consumes the equivalent of just a third of a planet.

In this paper we argue that what we need is One Planet Living, a way of life that engenders happy healthy lives within a fair share of the world’s resources, whilst leaving sufficient space for wildlife and wilderness.

Sustainable communities and businesses around the world show how One Planet Living is attractive and achievable. And, a  simple approach and framework makes it easy to deliver.

We argue that at The Earth Summit 2012, world leaders should agree to recognise planetary boundaries in world with a large, growing human population and commit to take action through a multilateral framework to enable the world to define and deliver a safe operating space within the time frame that science and morality tell us is necessary.

Key components of this multilateral framework would include:

• Global and national roadmaps to enable citizens to achieve One Planet Living supported by a new ‘Intergovernmental Panel on Resources’;
• A peer-reviewed ‘Solutions Bank’; and
• A raft of policy solutions to support the transition to a One Planet Living with a fair and green economy.

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