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Ecological resource availability: a method to estimate resource budgets for a sustainable economy
Summary
This paper presents a method for translating ecological limits into quantifiable resource budgets that economies can use to guide sustainable resource use. It addresses broad sustainability principles and does not focus on microplastics specifically.
Non-technical summary Resources are the basis of our economy and their provision causes major shares of the global environmental burdens, many of which are beyond safe limits today. In order to be sustainable, our economy needs to be able to operate within those boundaries. As resources are the physical ‘currency’ of our economy, we present a method that allows translating Earth system boundaries into resource budgets. This ecological resource availability determines the global annual production of a resource that can be considered absolutely sustainable. The budgets can be managed like financial budgets, bringing absolute environmental limits one step closer to decision-makers.
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