The Earth has ecological limits.

Every person has a right to an equal share of Earth's capacities.

Based on these two principles, Friends of the Earth has developed practical scenarios for the transition to a sustainable world. Originating with the 1992 Action Plan for a Sustainable Netherlands by Friends of the Earth Netherlands, this revolutionary approach to sustainability has since snowballed into several international projects addressing the political, institutional, social and cultural challenges of translating the theories into positive action for change. The environmental space and equity concepts provide the framework for all other Friends of the Earth activities.

The first principle is an indisputable physical constraint, but the second is value based and merits closer inspection. It is based in the value that no person has more rights than any other person. Although this value can be found in the constitutions of most western societies, these societies base their economic wealth on a different reality. The same goes for the Earth's limited capacity.

Environmental space offers a desirable and practical vision of sustainability. In "Towards a Sustainable Europe" and 30 national studies, Friends of the Earth has shown that it is possible to put this vision into reality - without substantial reductions in economic wealth. These studies have documented eco-efficiency measures that can achieve a factor-ten reduction in the environmental impacts of our wealth-generating activities. Southern groups in the Friends of the Earth network have contributed to our vision and understanding too, with the concept of 'ecological debts' which demonstrates the need to compensate Southern countries for Northern over-use and exploitation of Southern environmental resources in the past as well as the present.

< XXX this might also be a good place to prepare a link to my paper - to be published by Earthscan later this year, which explains the linkages between environmental space and ecological debt]>