SPOTLIGHT
“ We need to become stewards of the entire planet, with leadership at the planetary scale. We need more collective action and more trust between countries”
For the climate boundary, it’s 200 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide remaining to stay within a safe operating space. That means today we must reduce emissions by 10% annually. Which transformations are most urgent? Within these budgets, two transformations are required urgently: the energy transition and the food system transition. The food system is a dominant driver of overconsumption of freshwater, overuse of nitrogen and phosphorus, greenhouse gas emissions, land system change and biodiversity loss. We must move away from unsustainable, unhealthy, planet-damaging agricultural systems into regenerative, sustainable and healthy food systems. This is fully possible. We know how to produce food in ways to return within planetary boundaries. Moreover, unhealthy food is one of the biggest global health issues. Between 10 and 11 million people die every year because of malnutrition, over-nutrition and non-communicable diseases related to unhealthy food. Moving towards healthy diets, which we can define scientifically, gives us win-win outcomes because planetary health and human health are closely interdependent. What role do policy and economic incentives play in driving these transformations? We can accelerate these solutions for both the energy and food system transitions. All the solutions exist. Technologically it’s straightforward: solar, wind, biomass, hydro, fuel cells, conservation tillage, circular nutrient fluxes, reduce biodiversity loss. It requires economic incentives – policy that discourages planet-damaging and planetary-boundary threatening actions and incentivises sustainable, healthy, within-planetary-boundary operating activities. It needs to be easy for citizens to make the right choices. That combination of the energy and food system transitions and smart economic policies is at the heart of planetary stewardship. Indeed, with the ICJ’s recent ruling on climate change, countries now have a clear duty to address the planetary crisis and can be held accountable. ▪
JOHAN ROCKSTRÖM Johan Rockström has been director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, professor in Earth system science at the University of Potsdam, professor of water systems and global sustainability at Stockholm University, and chief scientist at Conservation Inter- national since 2018. He is a 2024 Virchow Prize laureate. He was the founding executive director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University from 2007 to 2018 as well as executive director of the Stockholm Environment Institute from 2004 to 2012. X-TWITTER @jrockstrom @PIK_climate www.pik-potsdam.de
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Health: A Political Choice – The Future of Health in a Fractured World
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