Methods:
Environmental Space

Environmental space starts with the assumption that there are limits to the biophysical capacity of the ecosystem. The environment can only absorb a limited amount of waste products and provide a limited amount of resources for human use. Ignoring this fact risks undermining the life-support system of humanity itself.

Environmental space also argues that - within these limits - every individual has equal access rights to natural capital. "Each person in the world has the same right to use an equal amount of environmental space" (FoE Europe, 1995:6). This principle of equity is the ethical basis of environmental space and links the quest for less environmental pollution with the equally urgent cause of global justice.

Based on these premises, environmental space allows for the calculation of sustainable consumption targets for all key inputs into the economic cycle (such as land, water, wood or non-renewables). One simply needs to divide the available natural resources by the current and projected global populations levels. The resulting figures describe an ideal state; they specify how many resources each individual could savely consume indefinitely without exceeding the carrying capacity of the planet.
These ideal state figures can thus not be achieved over night. However, by 2050, full sustainability should be a reality. By that point the "ideal state" figures will have to be achieved, if humanity wants to survive on this planet.

Until then, comparing the ideal state figures with the (much higher) current consumption levels in Europe and other industrialised countries can provide us with policy targets for resource reduction. These function as a challenge to our politicians and show them the true scale of the policy shift that is required. In order for us to be truly moving towards sustainable development we must, for example, reduce the consumption of non-renewables by at least 25% by 2010. Everything else will have to be considered simply not good enough (see table).

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Stefan Giljum