Professor Dr Johan Rockström

Research Priorities: Earth’s Resilience in the Anthropocene, planetary boundaries, tipping points in the terrestrial system, transformation of the food system, global water resources, sustainability
Johan Rockström researches questions of global sustainability. He became known for his concept of planetary boundaries, which became a standard assumption in sustainability sciences. His research activities cover a plethora of topics reaching from the earth’s system to global sustainability in the Anthropocene.
Johan Rockström‘s work has a significant influence in the research on sustainability. His major research contributions are concerned with the limits of earth’s system under the influence of the growing population and its pressures on the systems that enable human life. The research on the concept of “planetary boundaries“ was developed under his direction. He also collected data on the state of earth across the globe. Based on this research, he identified nine processes which sumarize the stability of earth and ensure its sustainability. Under the aspect of anthropogenic changes to the environment, the concept defines for humanity a stable space of action within the physical and biochemical limits of the planet as well as other aspects. An agreeable socio-ecological development is only possible within these limits. The concept is continuously refined.
Johan Rockströms other research questions are more abstract: “What room of action will there be for future humans on earth” and “Which sustainable transformations can lead them there?” Therefore, his research priorities manifest in a multitude of thematically different activities concerning earth’s system and sustainability in the Anthropocene. Amongst them is the project “Earth Resilience in the Anthropocene”, which is supposed to survey the biophysical and social adjustments necessary for the long-term stability of earth’s system. Here, goals for the earth system which are based in science are supposed to be identified by an international scientific committee and applied in cooperation with numerous economic and political actors in order to further the framework to better understand the limits of earth’s capacity. The project “The World in 2050”, on the other hand, is about the search for sustainable paths in the transformational scenarios, which are necessary to attain the UN-goals for sustainable development within earth’s limits. The global and science-based platform on the transformation of the food system, called “EAT” will determine the groundwork for a healthy and sustainable diet, which meets the UN-targets for a sustainable development as well as the guidelines of the Paris Convention in the long term.
The project “Green Water to attain SDGs in Africa” conjoinedly models biosphere and hydrologic budget to survey the influence of climate change on the supply of water as well as management strategies. The “Alliance for Global Common Goods” wants to empower citizens, cities, and businesses to take part in the governance and preservation of global common goods.
Moreover, Johan Rockström is council to for example the European Commission, state governments and international organisations in questions of sustainable development.