Decent living with 30% of the footprint
The idea that all countries need to reach high-income GDP levels to end poverty is unrealistic, especially considering the imperialistic reliance of high-income countries on resource drains from the low-income countries. Also, ending poverty under current conditions would further speed up ecological collapse, especially if we were to use a more realistic poverty line. Instead of allowing endless profit and growth, we should focus on meeting human needs through targeted production, public provisioning, and decommodification. Wealthy countries should scale down unnecessary production to cut emissions and reduce resource use. This approach allows decent living standards for 8.5 billion people with just 30% of current global resource use. Good news, but not easy to achieve, as it requires shifting away from profit-driven capitalism and building sovereign capacity in the global South.