Andreas Lind and Cecilie Friis on Planetary Policies
Video and podcast via https://online.ucpress.edu/gp/article/6/1/144301/213535/Towards-Planetary-Politics-A-Conversation-with?searchresult=1
Description
“In this episode, we speak with senior advisors Andreas Lind and Cecilie Friis from the Danish think tank CONCITO about their project From Planetary Boundaries to Planetary Policies. They explore how addressing the climate crisis requires confronting the broader web of interconnected environmental challenges—and how Earth-system science can inform more effective and equitable policy responses. Lind and Friis discuss the urgent need to move from abstract recognition of planetary boundaries to concrete political action.
What would it take to craft solutions that are globally viable? How can local communities meaningfully contribute to shaping policies at a planetary scale? The conversation highlights the potential of integrating planetary thinking into governance frameworks—bridging science, policy, and grassroots engagement in the face of accelerating ecological change.”
Excerpt
* HSF: Let’s talk about the planetary politics of planetary boundaries because that’s also what we’re curious to hear about. How do you translate all of this into politics? So, please, what is it that you’re doing?
AL: I mean, first of all, a little bit of background on the project, maybe the boring parts that we can get into the juicy parts afterwards. So, the project is funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation for three years. We have a year, and a half left at this point. And the job is basically to translate the planetary boundaries framework from a scientific concept into something that can be used operationally at the political level, at any political level, basically from the local to the national to the European to the global level. We set out to develop a model that would allow us to align policies with the planetary boundaries. And we have throughout the project, redefined that purpose a little bit into developing a framework, what we call a framework for planetary politics, that is basically a new perspective on environmental policy and all the questions that policymakers should ask themselves when they do environmental policy to reconsider if they do it in a way that’s aligned with the planetary boundaries and the Earth System science behind the planetary boundaries framework. If that makes sense. And it’s Cecilie and I that does it in Concito anchored in the global division. So, it’s a global project that’s made not for Danish context, but made for a global audience, because we think these insights and this way of thinking, this new perspective, the planetary perspective is relevant across the globe for all kinds of decision makers and stakeholders, basically.
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AL: I think we’re talking a lot about planetary boundaries and planetary politics. And it all sounds very supranational and international and global. But I think a point of our work is also to tell that all of these logics, they also apply to the local and the national level. It’s not planetary politics doesn’t mean it has to be done at a planetary level. Because the logic to science is the same, irrespective of the level of governance, basically. But some of the boundaries, obviously, are best handled at different levels. And I think now we are discussing freshwater and biogeochemical flows. And they are handled very well at the local, national, regional level, where the pollution is and where you can define a carrying capacity and an ecosystem affected. But something like climate change, ozone layer protection, they require international governance, global governance, or some sort of coordination, at least. They’re also different levels to it. That is what makes it very complex at times."
More information
Cecilie Friis, Andreas Lind, Hagen Schulz-Forberg, James Quilligan; Towards Planetary Politics—A Conversation with CONCITO. Global Perspectives 10 March 2025; 6 (1): 144301. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/gp.2025.144301
Further Readings:
Richardson, Katherine, et al. 2023. “Earth beyond Six of Nine Planetary Boundaries.” Science Advances 9 (38): eadh2458. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adh2458.
Rockström, Johan, et al. 2009a. “A Safe Operating Space for Humanity.” Nature 461: 472–475. https://doi.org/10.1038/461472a.
Rockström, Johan, et al. 2009b. “Planetary Boundaries: Exploring the Safe Operating Space for Humanity.” Ecology and Society 14 (2): Article 32. https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol14/iss2/art32/.
Steffen, Will, et al. 2015. “Planetary Boundaries: Guiding Human Development on a Changing Planet.” Science 347 (6223): 1259855. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1259855.
Steffen, Will, et al. 2020. “The Emergence and Evolution of Earth System Science.” Nature Reviews Earth & Environment 1: 54–63. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-019-0005-6.
Stockholm Resilience Centre. n.d. Planetary Boundaries Research. https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/planetary-boundaries.html.