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Cited by 229Sustainable Development and Environmental PolicySustainability and Ecological Systems AnalysisEnvironmental Impact and Sustainability

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 38 of the 38 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

National responsibility for ecological breakdown: a fair-shares assessment of resource use, 1970–2017

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Hickel, Jason, O’Neill, Daniel W, Fanning, Andrew L, Zoomkawala, Huzaifa·2022·The Lancet Planetary Health
DOI 10.1016/s2542-5196(22)00044-4
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Abstract

BACKGROUND: Human impacts on earth-system processes are overshooting several planetary boundaries, driving a crisis of ecological breakdown. This crisis is being caused in large part by global resource extraction, which has increased dramatically over the past half century. We propose a novel method for quantifying national responsibility for ecological breakdown by assessing nations' cumulative material use in excess of equitable and sustainable boundaries. METHODS: For this analysis, we derived national fair shares of a sustainable resource corridor. These fair shares were then subtracted from countries' actual resource use to determine the extent to which each country has overshot its fair share over the period 1970-2017. Through this approach, each country's share of responsibility for global excess resource use was calculated. FINDINGS: High-income nations are responsible for 74% of global excess material use, driven primarily by the USA (27%) and the EU-28 high-income countries (25%). China is responsible for 15% of global excess material use, and the rest of the Global South (ie, the low-income and middle-income countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia) is responsible for only 8%. Overshoot in higher-income nations is driven disproportionately by the use of abiotic materials, whereas in lower-income nations it is driven disproportionately by the use of biomass. INTERPRETATION: These results show that high-income nations are the primary drivers of global ecological breakdown and they need to urgently reduce their resource use to fair and sustainable levels. Achieving sufficient reductions will likely require high-income nations to adopt transformative post-growth and degrowth approaches. FUNDING: None.

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Metadata

Authors
Hickel, J., O’Neill, D. W., Fanning, A. L., & Zoomkawala, H.
Affiliations
  • Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ES)
  • University of Leeds (GB)
Corresponding author
Hickel, Jason
ORCID
Venue
The Lancet Planetary Health
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2022-04
Volume
6
Issue
4
Pages
e342-e349
ISSN
2542-5196 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/s2542-5196(22)00044-4
OpenAlex
W4223520720
Cited by
229
References
38
Citations by year
2026: 41 · 2025: 37 · 2024: 75 · 2023: 57 · 2022: 19
FWCI
41.96
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • The Lancet Planetary Health (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • London School of Economics and Political Science Research Online (London School of Economics and Political Science) (acceptedVersion)
  • White Rose Research Online (University of Leeds, The University of Sheffield, University of York) (acceptedVersion)
  • London School of Economics and Political Science Theses Online (London School of Economics and Political Science) (acceptedVersion)
  • Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law › Sustainable Development and Environmental Policy
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Sustainability and Ecological Systems Analysis
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Environmental Impact and Sustainability
Keywords
national responsibility, ecological breakdown, fair share, resource utilization (natural resources), planetary boundaries, overshoot, material utilization, equitable resource distribution, high-income countries, Global South, biomass utilization, degrowth, post-growth, resource extraction
MeSH terms
Africa, Asia, China, Humans, Middle East, Caribbean Region, Ecosystem, Ecological Parameter Monitoring

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