Planetary Boundaries Workshops

Planetary Boundaries Workshops

May 3rd and May 4th 2022
  • Actualité Sciences PoActualité Sciences Po

Presentation

Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Evaluation of Public Policies’s Environmental Policies research group and the Earth Politics Center are organising two workshops on planetary boundaries in order to analyse the link between this policy framework and the collective action dynamics that it generates. These workshops will bring together academics and practitioners to think jointly, and in an interdisciplinary perspective, about the nature, uses and effects of the concept of planetary boundaries. 

Objectives

The concept of "planetary boundaries" is hotly debated in academic circles, public environmental agencies and civil society organisations. This concept, developed by Johan Rockström and a research team from the Stockholm Resilience Center, proposes to understand environmental transformations at the global level on the basis of nine processes that appear to be "planetary boundaries", i.e. thresholds beyond which the Earth system is heading towards an uncertain future.

Academic debates have focused, first of all, on the scientific relevance of the concept of planetary boundaries, the choice of the nine processes identified and the threshold values beyond which a threshold would be crossed, or even the quantification of their cumulative effects over time. Despite these criticisms, the concept of planetary boundaries is the subject of strong and growing interest among public, collective and private actors in the field of the environment, as shown by its rapid dissemination within national environmental agencies, economic actors and civil society. By proposing a global and coherent framework for action, the concept of planetary boundaries makes it possible to document the ecological impact of current transformations and to quantify the changes specific to each country or region, thus contributing to the production of scientific expertise on a global scale. In addition to renewing the knowledge mobilised, the link with the human activities involved also makes it possible to consider the link with the creation of public policies and collective action, in terms of defining objectives and timetables, legitimising new actors, renewing choice and selection methods, as well as monitoring and evaluation.

The focus will be on the academic debates and the uses of this concept in the public policy-making process. How can we understand this concept, which originated in the experimental sciences, and which is linked to a method of quantification and a representation of environmental transformations on the scale of the Earth system? What are the explanatory factors for its rapid dissemination among public environmental authorities at different scales, despite the considerable challenges raised by the collection and processing of data on each of the transformations underway? How do planetary boundaries contribute, on a global scale, to the renewal of scientific and political controversies on the formulation of objectives and the choice of means? Finally, what are the uses of planetary boundaries in the production of public action, and in particular in the monitoring and evaluation of public policies?

Programme :

11h00 - 11h20 : Welcome and Introduction
Charlotte Halpern (Sciences Po, CEE & LIEPP / CPT)

11h20 - 11h50 : Discussion critique de la notion de limites planétaires du point de vue des sciences expérimentales
Magali Ader (IPGP, UPC)

11h50 - 12h20 : Les limites planétaires : l'inévitabilité des transformations profondes et systémiques pénètre la gouvernance du climat 
Sébastien Treyer (IDDRI)

12h20 - 12h50 : Collective discussion

13h00 - 14h00 : Lunch

14h00 - 14h30 : Penser la dynamique des systèmes socio-écologiques en lien avec les transformations planétaires
Juliette Pugliesi (Chargée de projets capital naturel - WWF France & Coordinatrice du groupe de travail Biodiversité SBTN (Science Based Targets Network) 

14h30 - 15h00 : Soutenabilité et structuration des enjeux climatiques au sein de l'État 
Johanna Barasz (France Stratégie) 

15h00 - 15h30 : Collective discussion

15h30 - 15h45 : Break

15h45 - 16h15 : How good are IPCC graphs at communicating climate science to policy-makers? 
Helen Fischer (University of Mainz & Leibniz Institute for Knowledge Media, Tübingem) 

16h15 - 16h45 : Discussion
Anneliese Depoux (co-directrice du Centre Virchow-Villermé et membre du Centre des Politiques de la Terre, Université Paris Cité) 

16h45 - 17h00 : Discussion

 

  • Workshop: Planetary boundaries, mobilising knowledge for collective action
    Université Paris Cité, May 4th, 2-6pm
    Registration required
    Contact: Nathalie Blanc (CNRS, LADYSS, Université Paris Cité & CPT)

This second workshop on planetary boundaries will focus on the mobilizing capacities of a conceptualization from the experimental sciences for civil society organizations. Can planetary limits therefore constitute a vector of commitment, in particular for non-experts? How have environmental associations and movements appropriated this notion and integrated it into their repertoire of action? What place is given to scientific knowledge in the action? What does this expression allow for in terms of collective action?

Programme : 

14h00 - 14h15 : Welcome and introduction
Nathalie Blanc (CNRS, LADYSS, CPT) et Romain Leclerq (CPT) 

14h15 - 15h00 : Intervention by Marine Calmet (Wild Legal) 
En 2020, l'association Wild Legal construit aux côtés de la Convention Citoyenne pour le Climat une proposition visant à la création d'une Haute Autorité pour le Climat, instance supra ministérielle compétente pour garantir l’application et le respect des mécanismes biologiques des écosystèmes ainsi que leurs interactions. Il s'agit d'apporter une réponse transversale aux enjeux climatiques et écologiques mais également de provoquer une profonde refonte de l’ensemble de nos politiques écologiques en misant sur l’adoption d’outils juridiques nouveaux issus de la collaboration entre scientifiques, juristes et citoyens.

15h00 - 15h15 : Q&A

15h15 - 16h00 : Intervention by Yamina Saheb (OpenExp) 
A l’appui des exemples de l’Union européenne, de la France et de l’Allemagne, cette intervention permettra de mettre en avant ce en quoi les objectifs de décarbonation annoncés par les pays de l’OCDE ne sont pas alignés avec la limite qui leur est propre, déjà dépassée. Ces objectifs n’étant pas non plus compatibles avec les trajectoires des autres pays, la dichotomie Nord-Sud est d’autant plus renforcée.

16h00 - 17h30 : Collective discussion

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