Publications

Jan Bebbington, Robert Blasiak, Carlos Larrinaga, Shona Russell, Madlen Sobkowiak, Jean-Baptiste Jouffray, Henrik Österblom. 2024. Shaping nature outcomes in corporate settings. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0325

Transnational companies have substantive impacts on nature: a hallmark of living in the Anthropocene. Understanding these impacts through company provision of information is a precursor to holding them accountable for nature outcomes. The effect of increasing disclosures (of varying quality) is predicated on ‘information governance’, an approach that uses disclosure requirements to drive company behaviour. However, its efficac...

Johan Rockström, Louis J. Kotzé, Svetlana Milutinović, Frank Biermann, Victor Brovkin, Jonathan F. Donges, Jonas Ebbesson, Duncan French, Joyeeta Gupta, Rakhyun E. Kim, Tim M. Lenton, Dominic Lenzi, Nebojsa Nakicenovic, Barbara Neumann, Fabian Schuppert, Ricarda Winkelmann, Klaus Bosselmann, Carl Folke, Wolfgang Lucht, David Schlosberg, Katherine Richardson, Will Steffen. 2023. The Planetary Commons: A New Paradigm for Safeguarding Earth Regulating Systems in the Anthropocene. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2301531121

The Anthropocene signifies the start of a no-analogue trajectory of the Earth system that is fundamentally different from the Holocene. This new trajectory is characterized by rising risks of triggering irreversible and unmanageable shifts in Earth system functioning. We urgently need a new global approach to safeguard critical Earth system regulating functions more effectively and comprehensively. The global commons framework...

Thomas Hahn, Giles B. Sioen, Alexandros Gasparatos, Thomas Elmqvist, Eduardo Brondizio, Erik Gómez-Baggethun, Carl Folke, Martiwi Diah Setiawati, Tri Atmaja, Enggar Yustisi Arini, Marcin Pawel Jarzebski, Kensuke Fukushi, Kazuhiko Takeuchi. 2023. Insurance value of biodiversity in the Anthropocene is the full resilience value. Ecological Economics. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2023.107799

Recently two distinctly different conceptualisations of insurance value of biodiversity/ ecosystems have been developed. The ecosystem framing addresses the full resilience value without singling out subjective risk preferences. Conversely, the economic framing focuses exactly on this subjective value of risk aversion, implying that the insurance value is zero for risk neutral persons. Here we analyse the differences conceptua...

Rammelt, Crelis F., Gupta, Joyeeta, Liverman, Diana, Scholtens, Joeri, Ciobanu, Daniel, Abrams, Jesse F., Bai, Xuemei, Gifford, Lauren, Gordon, Christopher, Hurlbert, Margot, Inoue, Cristina Y. A., Jacobson, Lisa, Lade, Steven J., Lenton, Timothy M., McKay, David I. Armstrong, Nakicenovic, Nebojsa, Okereke, Chukwumerije, Otto, Ilona M., Pereira, Laura M., Prodani, Klaudia, Rockstrom, Johan, Stewart-Koster, Ben, Verburg, Peter H., Zimm, Caroline. 2023. Impacts of meeting minimum access on critical earth systems amidst the Great Inequality. Nature Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1038/S41893-022-00995-5

The Sustainable Development Goals aim to improve access to resources and services, reduce environmental degradation, eradicate poverty and reduce inequality. However, the magnitude of the environmental burden that would arise from meeting the needs of the poorest is under debate—especially when compared to much larger burdens from the rich. We show that the ‘Great Acceleration’ of human impacts was characterized by a ‘Great In...

Cork, Steven, Alexandra, Carla, Alvarez-Romero, Jorge G., Bennett, Elena M., Berbes-Blazquez, Marta, Bohensky, Erin, Bok, Barbara, Costanza, Robert, Hashimoto, Shizuka, Hill, Rosemary, Inayatullah, Sohail, Kok, Kasper, Kuiper, Jan J., Moglia, Magnus, Pereira, Laura, Peterson, Garry, Weeks, Rebecca, Wyborn, Carina. 2023. Exploring Alternative Futures in the Anthropocene. Annual Review of Environment and Resources. https://doi.org/10.1146/ANNUREV-ENVIRON-112321-095011

Many challenges posed by the current Anthropocene epoch require fundamental transformations to humanity's relationships with the rest of the planet. Achieving such transformations requires that humanity improve its understanding of the current situation and enhance its ability to imagine pathways toward alternative, preferable futures. We review advances in addressing these challenges that employ systematic and structured thin...

Gupta, Joyeeta, Prodani, Klaudia, Bai, Xuemi, Gifford, Lauren, Lenton, Tim M., Otto, Ilona, Pereira, Laura, Rammelt, Crelis, Scholtens, Joeri, Tabara, Joan David. 2023. Earth system boundaries and Earth system justice: sharing the ecospace. Environmental Politics. https://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2023.2234794

The literature on planetary and Earth system boundaries calls on humans to live within those boundaries. Sharing such limited ecospace raises questions of justice. Global environmental assessments and scholarship are increasingly paying attention to justice issues, yet inadequately define how to share the limited ecospace. Against this background we ask: how can global environmental assessments’ concerns for justice be enhance...

Silva Bezerra, F. G., Mann de Toledo, P., von Randow, C., Aguiar, A. P. et al. 2022. Spatio-temporal analysis of dynamics and future scenarios of anthropic pressure on biomes in Brazil. Ecological Indicators. https://doi-org.ezproxy.its.uu.se/10.1016/j.ecolind.2022.108749

Anthropogenic transformations, which have become intensified by land use and land cover changes and industrialization, have contributed to increased anthropogenic pressure on biodiversity. These disturbances contribute toward fragmentating habitats at different scales and putting species at risk, in addition to compromising the main biogeochemical cycles. To better understand the spatiotemporal dynamics of anthropogenic pressu...

Chaigneau, T. and Schill, C. 2022. Environmental behaviours within ecological and social limits: integrating well-being with behavioural research for sustainability. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2022.101201

There is a pressing need to reduce inequalities and bring everyone above a foundational level of well-being whilst simultaneously staying within planetary boundaries. Yet, there is a limited understanding of how moving into and maintaining such 'safe and just' spaces affect environmental behaviours. To fill this gap, we argue for integrating human well-being and behaviour research. In particular, to 1) implement social thresho...

Jaramillo, F., Piemontese, L., Berghuijs, W. R., Wang-Erlandsson, L., Greve, P., Wang, Z. 2022. Fewer basins will follow their Budyko curves under global warming and fossil-fueled development. Water Resources Research. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021WR031825

The Budyko framework consists of a curvilinear relationship between the evaporative ratio (i.e., actual evaporation over precipitation) and the aridity index (i.e., potential evaporation over precipitation) and defines evaporation's water and energy limits. A basin's movement within the Budyko space illustrates its hydroclimatic change and helps identify the main drivers of change. On the one hand, long-term aridity changes dr...

Virkki, V., Alanärä, E., Porkka, M., Ahopelto, L., Gleeson, T., Mohan, C., Wang-Erlandsson, L., Flörke, M., Gerten, D., Gosling, S. N., Hanasaki, N., Müller Schmied, H., Wanders, N., and Kummu, M. 2022. Globally widespread and increasing violations of environmental flow envelopes. Hydrology and Earth Systems Science. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-3315-2022

Human actions and climate change have drastically altered river flows across the world, resulting in adverse effects on riverine ecosystems. Environmental flows (EFs) have emerged as a prominent tool for safeguarding the riverine ecosystems, but at the global scale, the assessment of EFs is associated with high uncertainty related to the hydrological data and EF methods employed. Here, we present a novel, in-depth global EF as...