Urban Development within Planetary Boundaries 04

We discuss how the allocation of allowable resource or emission shares to individual projects should not be seen as a purely technical exercise – it carries far-reaching and complex ethical implications, which depend critically on the sharing principles applied along each step of the target-setting process.

Given the complex ethical implications, we describe several sharing principle examples commonly used to set ecological targets based on planetary boundaries. With this, we give our view on the extent to which they align with Doughnut principles. We illustrate a target-setting procedure for the Danish urban development context and describe approaches to integrate ecological targets with project-level impact

The Appendix provides more in-depth description of methods used throughout this section, including:

• Literature and explanation on principles to allocate ecological sustainability targets.

• Advanced methods to use LCA to assess such targets.

• Differences between LCA tools and frameworks used in various countries, and some examples of correction factors to account for missing processes in LCA.

• A description of the tools used to assess impact on ecosystems and biodiversity.

• Guidelines on whether and how to use and report carbon offsets, bio-credits and similar schemes to regenerative ends.

According to Doughnut Economics, allocation needs to be regenerative and distributive by design, Therefore allocation principles based on the current economic paradigm are not aligned with Doughnut Economics.

Setting and assessing targets for Climate Change

Figure 21: Setting and assessing targets for climate change

This figure can be used to understand how to set and assess targets for climate change from a global level down to urban development projects and is also indicative of how this section of the book is laid out.

The following section of the book explores several approaches to allocation. In the context of this book, allocation refers to the process of assigning or distributing a share of specific planetary boundaries to national, sectoral, and project level scales. The aim is to ensure urban development in a given place, stays within its respective share of the climate change planetary boundary.

Allocation is not just a mathematical science but rather a subjective and inherently political pursuit. Allocation is useful in setting targets but should not be done in a vacuum. It is important to be context aware and consider the other tools and indicators that are used in the building industry for target setting and benchmarking impact. For example, the allocation approaches presented in the forthcoming sections do not align with standard Building LCA, because the account for different processes. As such, the targets presented cannot be compared directly to Building LCA without applying a correction factor.

We can and should use climate science to set measurable targets in the building industry. It is quite clear that we need to reduce our impacts and setting measurable targets will help urban developers make qualified design decisions on the path towards a regenerative future. It is important to remember systems level thinking when we set reduction targets. Project level, bottom-up target should be complemented by national-level, top-down limits to industry growth if urban development should move towards the safe and just space for humanity.

First, the finite planetary boundary for climate change is identified. That boundary is translated into a safe operating space, or target for annual global emissions.

A share of the annual global emissions is allocated to a country. In this case, Denmark.

A share of the annual Danish emissions target is allocated to the building sector and then down to project level targets.

Building LCA can be used to assess the climate change impact of a building.

LCA results should be adjusted for missing processes.

Regenerative measures should be implemented both on and off-site.

Planetary sustainability will be reached when we learn to use urban development to restore planetary health.