The safe operating space for greenhouse gas emissions

Abstract: The Planetary Boundary for Climate Change has been surpassed, and humanity must therefore decide on a pathway back to the safe operating space below the Planetary boundaries to minimise the risk of deleterious or even catastrophic environmental change at continental to global scales. However, the control variables used in the concept do not link to current indicators quantified in life-cycle assessments. Translating the Planetary Boundaries into maximum scores for life-cycle assessment indicators is therefore necessary to enable the assessment of whether life-cycle environmental impacts of e.g. products and services respect the Planetary Boundaries. This paper investigates two different approaches for translating the Planetary Boundary for Climate Change into estimations of maximum emission of greenhouse gasses expressed as annual emissions of CO2-equivalents, a commonly used Climate Change indicator in life-cycle assessments. The estimations may serve as an end goal benchmark for the life-cycle environmental impact of products and services in proposed pathways and roadmaps for the regeneration back to the Planetary Boundary for Climate Change.