The Role of Quota Systems in Realising Planetary Boundaries

Valérie Dupont, Thierry Largey, Stéphane Nahrath and Céline Weyermann

Journal of Environmental Law, 2024, vol. 36, issue 2, 203-226

Abstract: A strong vision of sustainable development requires respect for the limits imposed by the functioning of the planet to ensure its resilience. The framework of planetary boundaries is increasingly relied on to design quantifiable objectives that can guide policy- and decisionmakers to enact measures to ensure such a sustainable society. Yet, to effectively guide, the framework requires a reformulation to make it applicable to human activities. Concretely, planetary boundaries need to be transposed into planetary quotas, which express the maximum absolute quantity of emissions, withdrawals or use that is admissible so as not to exceed the planetary limits. Furthermore, the achievement of planetary quotas depends on the fair allocation of national, sectoral, or even individual quotas. In this context, we question whether and under which institutional conditions environmental quotas could be an appropriate tool to implement planetary boundaries. This article proposes a legal and political theory of quota systems and applies it to the establishment of planetary quota systems in international environmental law.

Keywords: quotas; planetary boundaries; framework of planetary boundaries; sustainable development; international environmental law (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/jel/eqae014 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:envlaw:v:36:y:2024:i:2:p:203-226.

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Environmental Law is currently edited by Sanja Bogojević

More articles in Journal of Environmental Law from Oxford University Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().