“From a scientific perspective, we can say today: what humanity has done in the last fifty years has altered conditions on Earth which existed over the previous 10,000 years. But just as true: what we do in the next fifty years will determine the next 10,000 years.” This statement was made by the Director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre and winner of the Environmental Prize, Prof. Dr. Johan Rockström, on the occasion of the symposium “Making the Planetary Boundaries Concept Work”.
At the two-day international conference sponsored by the Federal Ministry of the Environment, the Federal Environmental Agency (UBA), and the German Federal Environmental Foundation (Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt, DBU) at the end of April, 400 participants in Berlin discussed how this concept can be implemented in government, business and society. The federal government has used the Planetary Boundaries concept as a basis for policy orientation in the new edition of the German Sustainability Strategy 2016. The concept is intended – along with a focus on a life lived in dignity – as a guideline for political decisions.
