The social shortfall and ecological overshoot of nations

Academic research by Fanning et al, which applied the Doughnut model, found that no country is currently moving towards the doughnut-shaped safe and just space. Current trends are likely to deepen the climate and ecological crisis while failing to eliminate social shortfalls. This is despite decades of sustainable development rhetoric. High income countries that have high, albeit unequal, levels of social foundations meet these with levels of resource use far beyond anything that could be sustainably extended to all people. Furthermore, high income countries’ extent of ecological overshoot has generally been increasing. While low-income countries have shown progress in reducing social foundation shortfalls, they have generally been transgressing biophysical boundaries faster than they have been achieving social thresholds. The study concluded that the energy transition is unlikely to be accomplished with efficiency improvements alone and will require a redesign of current growth-dependent economic systems.

The study concluded that the energy transition is unlikely to be accomplished with efficiency improvements alone and will require a redesign of current growth-dependent economic systems.

See topline