Which policies would keep humanity within the planet’s safe operating space without hindering progress on the sustainable development goals? This is possibly the most pressing question facing mankind today. To advance on that question the aim of this project is to develop an integrated assessment model to study the two-way interaction between the global economy and the most pressing global environmental issues.

Human activities are pushing the Earth system beyond its “planetary boundaries”, risking catastrophic environmental change. Action is urgently needed, yet well-intentioned policies designed to reduce pressure on a single boundary can, through economic feedbacks, lead to aggravation of other pressures. Furthermore, since the agricultural sector is a major source of environmental change, policies may lead to increased food prices thus more hunger. Thus, we ask the grand question: which policies would keep humanity within the planet’s safe operating space while meeting other Sustainable Development Goals?

To answer that question, we will develop and quantify an economic-environmental integrated assessment model (IAM) for the analysis of the nine planetary pressures and policies to ease them. This is a truly interdisciplinary task. Thus our team consists of economists and environmental scientists.

The output of the project will be an IAM, made available through an online tool, for policy makers and the research community to use for analysis. Numerous research articles both in economics and environmental science will be generated answering questions like: What would 2 be the impact on the planetary pressures if we solve the climate and hunger problem simultaneously? What is the effect on the planetary pressures of directing technical change towards agriculture? How should the energy system be changed in order to enable economic growth within the planetary boundaries?

The project has been divided into four work packages, outlined below. More detail on each of the packages can be found on the Work Packages page.