Tread Softly – briefings on global justice for people and planet

An educational resource that promotes the values of global citizenship and international cooperation

Tread Softly briefings cover almost 100 topics relevant to sustainable development and global justice, organised into 12 familiar headings. The briefings offer basic analysis of the world’s major social and environmental problems. They seek to demonstrate that solutions invariably depend on principled international agreement and coordinated action.

Whilst the content strives to recognise differing views on controversial issues, there is a bias towards the call to “leave no one behind”, as articulated in the UN’s Global Goals on Sustainable Development. These Goals recognise principles of justice and equity, currently unfashionable, but likely to become the essential tools of humanity as the planet wrestles with its environmental limits.

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Developed over the last decade, two concepts in particular encapsulate a vision of sustainable development that informs Tread Softly briefings.

Planetary Boundaries

Scientists from the Stockholm Resilience Centre have examined the sustainability of the planet’s natural life support systems by assessing nine critical areas of anthropogenic impact. They conclude that four of these measures – climate change, loss of biosphere integrity, land-system change, and altered biogeochemical cycles (phosphorus and nitrogen) – exceed their “planetary boundaries”, the point at which the biosphere is at risk of instability.

These scientists believe that continued failure to respect planetary boundaries could drive earth systems into a permanently altered state, almost certainly with dire consequences for the human species.

Abundance within planetary boundaries – Johan Rockstrom continues to develop the concept of the safe operating space for humanity.
from Virgin Unite

The safe and just space for humanity

Inspired by a 2012 discussion paper published by Kate Raworth, then employed by Oxfam, development agencies have pointed out that tolerance thresholds also exist for individual families, whose social boundaries are measured in dignity rather than a test tube. To impose policies which remedy environmental damage caused by affluent lifestyles, without priority for eliminating poverty and hunger, would offend any sense of global justice.

The conceptual gap between these planetary and social boundaries therefore delineates “a safe and just space for humanity,” a “doughnut” vision of sustainable development. The UN Sustainable Development Goals must steer all humanity into this safe space if they are to be our touchstone.

Kate Raworth explains her idea of combining planetary and social boundaries into a vision of sustainable development
from Oxfam International

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A Good Life For All Within Planetary Boundaries – a data-driven opportunity to visualise and compare the environmental and social performance of nations relative to a “safe and just” development space. Not one country currently meets basic needs for its citizens at a globally sustainable level of resource use.

from University of Leeds

Recent News and Opinion about Global Justice

to filter these selections by theme, click on the menu above

New map reveals state-sanctioned violence against protesters

19/9/2023: Authorities across the world are increasingly resorting to unlawful use of force and repressive legislation to crush protests, according to Amnesty International. Its new interactive map charts the numerous human rights violations perpetrated against protesters around the world.

Source: Amnesty International

Ratification of high seas treaty receives boost at UNGA

22/9/23: Seventy-six countries and the European Union have now signed the high seas treaty, a significant step forward to protect marine biodiversity in international waters. Once 60 nations have ratified it, the treaty will finally come into force.

Source: Mongabay

Rich countries ‘confident’ $100bn climate finance delivered in 2023

19/9/2023: Ministers from richer countries believe that their $100 billion a year climate finance promise will be met in 2023, but not confirmed until 2025 at the earliest. The delay means governments will go into Cop28 and Cop29 without assurance that the goal has been met, doing nothing to ease tensions between developed and developing countries.

Source: Climate Home News

Rice export bans are a food crisis risk for Asia

19/9/2023: Global rice prices have risen to a 12-year high since India, the world’s largest rice exporter, embarked on a policy of reducing exports. Across Asia, nations are attempting to control the cereal grain’s prices, sowing the seeds of a potential food crisis

Source: CNA

Over 4 million Venezuelan refugees and migrants need support

12/9/2023: Vast numbers of migrants and refugees from Venezuela continue to face difficulties accessing food, shelter, health care, education and formal employment across Latin America and the Caribbean. Many are at risk of human trafficking, forced recruitment and gender-based violence.

Source: UN Refugee Agency

Multiple shocks push world further away from SDGs

15/9/2023: Halfway into the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, progress towards its food and agriculture targets has stagnated or reversed, compounding the challenges in eradicating poverty and hunger, according to a new report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. The lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the impact of armed conflicts around the world, and the escalating effects of the climate crisis are largely to blame.

Source: UN Food And Agriculture Organization

Six of nine planetary boundaries have been crossed

13/9/2023: Six of nine planetary boundaries are being crossed, while simultaneously pressure in all boundary processes is increasing, new research published in the journal Science Advances shows. The new study is the third major assessment of the planetary boundaries framework, first introduced in 2009.

Source: Stockholm Resilience Centre

Small islands open case at landmark maritime court hearing

11/9/2023: The heads of small island states most vulnerable to climate change have criticised “endless” climate change negotiations. At the start of an unprecedented maritime court hearing, they have called for legally binding obligations, rather than empty promises that go unfulfilled.

Source: Climate Home News

Stop calling people ‘climate refugees’

11/9/2023: Despite the rejection of the term “climate refugee” by the UN Refugee Agency, and the International Organization on Migration, it persists in popular media. “Climate refugee” implies that populations displaced by climate change are protected by the 1951 Refugee Convention. They are not.

Source: Climate Home News

Global survey of democracy uncovers mixed feelings

14/9/2023: An annual global survey from the Open Society Foundation reflects both positive and negative aspects of the state of democracy worldwide. A disconcertingly large minority of young people surveyed (42%) feel that military rule is a good way of running a country. A similar number (35%) feel that having a strong leader who does not bother with elections or consulting parliament/congress is also acceptable.

Source: Inter Press Service

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