4. Conclusion

The framework of planetary limits has helped to renew the paradigm of environmental assessment, forging the field of absolute assessment of environmental sustainability. This paradigmatic shift consists in no longer assessing the environmental impacts of a system in relative terms, i.e. by comparing its impacts with those of a nearby system or the same system at another date, but in assessing them in relation to an environmental reference – planetary limits – itself based on the environmental state of the Holocene. On a global scale, the framework is undergoing continuous improvement: environmental metrics are being refined and the data used updated; the inclusion of environmental justice criteria has enriched the framework with an ethical dimension, but its systemic integration with environmental variables has yet to be specified.

The framework is applied to local...