One of the consequences of the biophysical perspective on the economy is the emphasis on limits to growth.
In the biophysical perspective, the Earth is a system that primarily gets its energy from the sun, while the economy is seen as a metabolic organism that develops within the limits of the biosphere..
Biophysical boundaries are not inherently just.
A collaboration between social and natural scientists, the Earth Commission, defines and operationalizes Earth system justice to ensure that biophysical boundaries reduce harm, increase well-being, and reflect substantive and procedural justice.
Unlike the widely agreed UN 2030 SDG agenda, there is no political consensus that the PBs are the biophysical limits that we should not transgress globally (except climate change boundary) ( Griggs et al., 2013 ).
The lack of consideration of biophysical limits in current ‘decoupling-based sustainability indicators’ is distracting and insufficient ( Alexander et al., 2018, Jackson and Victor, 2019, Ward et al., 2016 ).
Taking Australia as an example, the State of the Environment Report, which thoroughly reviews the state of the Australian environment in 2016 ( Jackson, 2017 ), biophysical limits are described in one phrase ‘ achieving long-term sustainability requires that the use of the environment is kept within biophysical limits… .
