Economic Analysis of Global and Local Policies for Respecting Planetary Boundaries

In a series of highly cited papers over the period 2009 – 2023, earth system scientists have identified a set of nine planetary boundaries that must not be breached if we wish to avoid catastrophic consequences for nature and humanity. These range from well-mixed, global boundaries, such as climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions, to localized limits on freshwater availability and reactive nitrogen entering the environment. Recent estimates by Richardson et al. (2023), suggest that four of the nine planetary boundaries have already been breached. The food system is a key driver of all four exceedances and therefore must play a key role in any solutions. However, the establishment of these boundaries and the analysis of potential solutions has often been devoid of economic considerations. Furthermore, in the case of several of these planetary boundaries, limited attention has been given to the economic policies that might allow society to address them, as well as the likely synergies and tradeoffs across economic policies targeted to individual objectives. This paper seeks to bring further economic analysis to bear on the quantitative assessment of global and local economic policies aimed at respecting these planetary boundaries, concluding with six lessons to inform future research on this topic.