Hot or Cool Institute is a public interest think tank that explores the intersection between society and sustainability, we bring together researchers and practitioners to facilitate solutions to global problems.
- April 26, 2022
The Hot or Cool Think Piece series pushes the frontier of policy making and informs public discussion with emerging perspectives on the sustainability transition. Authors are leading thinkers with broad experience and innovative ideas.
This first instalment in the Hot or Cool Think Piece series shows that climate disruption and biodiversity collapse are two symptoms of the environmental crisis caused by ever-growing resource consumption. Multiple overshoots of Earth’s planetary boundaries have pushed our natural systems close to or even beyond critical tipping points. Effective reduction of resource consumption, in particular fossil fuels, is now an immediate necessity for civilisation to survive and must be reached within less than a decade. Since traditional policies have failed, and the time pressure is extreme, new instruments for immediate reduction of consumption are required. We suggest that rationing of fossil fuel consumption is such a measure, capping the resource input to national economies while permitting trade between them. Nationally, new allocation mechanisms based in justice, resilience, and social sustainability are suggested.
