The Living Well Within Limits project investigates the energy requirements of well-being. I will share our most recent results on global energy footprint inequality, implications of redistribution, as well as modelling the minimum energy demand that would provide decent living standards for everyone on earth by 2050. But enabling decent living standards for all within planetary boundaries is a political and economic challenge as well, and we need active engagement of the research community to advocate for it.
Prof. Julia Steinberger is Professor of Societal Challenges of Climate Change at the University of Lausanne since 2020. Her research and teaching lay between the interdisciplinary areas of Ecological Economics and Industrial Ecology. Her research examines the connections between resource use (energy and materials, greenhouse gas emissions) and societal performance (economic activity and human wellbeing). She is interested in quantifying the current and historical linkages between resource use and socioeconomic parameters, and identifying alternative development pathways to guide the necessary transition to a low carbon society. She is the recipient of a Leverhulme Research Leadership Award for her research project ‘Living Well Within Limits’ investigating how universal human well-being might be achieved within planetary boundaries. She is Lead Author for the IPCC’s 6th Assessment Report with Working Group 3.