Factor 10 Institute

Factor 10 Institute: "January 2008
Position Paper 08/01: “FUTURE - BEYOND CLIMATIC CHANGE”

Summary:
Climatic change is commonly thought to be the ecological problem. But even if we had solved this crisis, the systemic mismatch between our economic performance and the stability of the carrier system earth would still remain.

For improving decisively the chances of human survival on our planet, the world-wide generation of welfare must be achieved by 2050 with a per capita ecological footprint of 1.8 ha, a per capita consumption of no more than 5 - 6 yearly tons of non-renewable material resources, and an emission of CO2 not exceeding 2 tons per year and person. These goals imply a manifold dematerialization in the western world, but will allow reasonable growth of resource consumption in many poorer countries. These goals should be independently reviewed, and where need be adjusted and refined in the light of growing experience and a changing world population.

Considerable practical experience has shown that the chances for achieving these goals are reasonable from a technical point of view - without jeopardizing end use satisfaction. However, the economic framework of today, fiscal policies, the price structure for labor and natural resources, perverse subsidies, the distribution of wealth and health, as well as the wide variation of access to food and education, are not supporting at this time a promising future with a future.

Coherent key indicators for social, institutional and in particular economic progress toward a more sustainable future have not as yet been agreed to.
This paper describes a systems-based approach for framing the ecological dimension of sustainability."