An intact ice sheet in Greenland, tropical forests and permafrost in cold regions are essential to Earth's habitability. They must therefore be legally protected as “planetary common goods” and managed supra-regionally, explains an international team of experts with Austrian participation. This would allow “Earth system functions” that are critical to climate to be effectively protected. The study was published in the scientific journal “PNAS”.
Currently, there are legally established “global commons” such as the high seas, outer space, Antarctica and the Earth’s atmosphere. They are outside of sovereign claims, meaning no country can dispose of them. “All states and people have a common interest in protecting and managing them effectively for the benefit of all”, explain legal, political and earth scientists led by Johan Rockström, from the University of Potsdam (Germany), in a statement of press. This should also apply to “critical biophysical systems that regulate the resilience and conditions and therefore the quality of life on Earth”, according to the experts.
Changes in the “elements that bring down the Earth system,” such as the Amazon rainforests, Greenland ice sheets and glaciers, permafrost, monsoon winds and ocean currents in the North Atlantic, affect people around the world, they wrote. they. “They should be seen as planetary commons that have been entrusted to the world and therefore require shared and coordinated control,” said Rockström.
These “Earth's critical regulatory systems are now under pressure from human activities to an unprecedented extent”, explain the researchers, who also include Nebojsa Nakicenovic from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg (Lower Austria) and the Institute of Vienna. The University of Technology heard: “Our existing global environmental legislation is not sufficient to ensure that planetary limits are not exceeded.” Therefore, there is an “urgent need for planetary commons as a new legal and governance approach that can protect the critical functions of the Earth system more effectively,” they say.
Service: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2301531121