National Environmental Performance on Planetary Boundaries
Summary
This study was commissioned by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and carried out by the Stockholm Resilience Centre and the Stockholm Environment Institute. The purpose is to test whether the concept of planetary boundaries (PBs), as defined by Rockström et al. (2009ab), in different ways could reflect the international dimension of Sweden's national environmental quality objectives.
Using planetary boundaries as a basis for comparing the performance of countries, the main conclusion of the study is that, in general, it is important to work with developed countries and countries with rapidly growing economies. These countries have higher absolute and per capita impact on the environment globally and thus a bigger responsibility for progressive action on, e.g., mitigating climate change.