When optimization for governing human-environment tipping elements is neither sustainable nor safe

Wolfram Barfuss (), Jonathan F. Donges, Steven J. Lade and Jürgen Kurths
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Wolfram Barfuss: Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
Jonathan F. Donges: Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
Steven J. Lade: Stockholm University
Jürgen Kurths: Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Optimizing economic welfare in environmental governance has been criticized for delivering short-term gains at the expense of long-term environmental degradation. Different from economic optimization, the concepts of sustainability and the more recent safe operating space have been used to derive policies in environmental governance. However, a formal comparison between these three policy paradigms is still missing, leaving policy makers uncertain which paradigm to apply. Here, we develop a better understanding of their interrelationships, using a stylized model of human-environment tipping elements. We find that no paradigm guarantees fulfilling requirements imposed by another paradigm and derive simple heuristics for the conditions under which these trade-offs occur. We show that the absence of such a master paradigm is of special relevance for governing real-world tipping systems such as climate, fisheries, and farming, which may reside in a parameter regime where economic optimization is neither sustainable nor safe.

Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-04738-z

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