New global model shows how to bring environmental pressures back to 2015 levels by 2050
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 15-May-2025 00:09 ET (15-May-2025 04:09 GMT/UTC)
A first-of-its-kind study in Nature finds that with bold and coordinated policy choices—across emissions, diets, food waste, and water and nitrogen efficiency—humanity could, by 2050, bring global environmental pressures back to levels seen in 2015. This shift would move us much closer to a future in which people around the world can live well within the Earth’s limits. “Our results show that it is possible to steer back toward safer limits, but only with decisive, systemic change,” says lead author Prof Detlef Van Vuuren, a researcher at Utrecht University and the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL).
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