“Safe and just” requires redistribution
The “safe and just operating space” envisions meeting human needs without breaching the planet’s environmental limits. This graph compares the impacts of achieving “decent living standards” (DLS) against “planetary boundaries” (PBs). The results show that reducing consumption to DLS levels (while increasing it for those below, as others also argued), without transforming provisioning systems, cuts impacts by about half (confirmed by other studies). However, this alone won’t bring us into the “safe” zone, as climate, biodiversity, and nitrogen PBs would still be breached. A “safe and just” outcome for up to 10.4 billion people is possible, but it requires redistributing resources (to DLS levels), transitioning to fossil-free energy systems, adopting largely vegan diets, and halting further land conversion.