Ester Oliveras,
Vice-rector for Social Commitment and Sustainability of the UPF and professor of the Department of Economics and Business

The high temperatures this autumn are offering a brief respite before what was expected to be a rough winter due to high energy prices, especially electricity. The current energy crisis has social, economic and political repercussions. A more accelerated transition to green and sustainable energies to mitigate the effect of global warming also comes into play.

How should this energy crisis be viewed from the perspective of Planetary Wellbeing? Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) launched the Planetary Wellbeing initiative under former rector Jaume Casals with the aim of contributing to the knowledge and understanding of the complex, interrelated and systemic issues facing human, animal and planetary wellbeing. The energy crisis encompasses all these elements: it is a complex, systemic problem that affects the wellbeing of humans and the very planet itself.

In a paper published in the journal Sustainability, a group of researchers from different disciplines defined the concept of Planetary Wellbeing for the first time, describing it as ‘the highest attainable standard of wellbeing for human and non-human beings and their social and natural systems’ (Antó et al., 2021). Given the authors’ diverse scientific backgrounds, the hard part was not reaching a definition, but a consensus. The aim was not to craft a perfect definition of Planetary Wellbeing, but to work in a multi- and interdisciplinary way, which remains a challenge for scientific institutions.

So what would it be like to write a paper on the energy crisis from a Planetary Wellbeing perspective? For one thing, rather than a kaleidoscope, which is the title of this section, it would have to be a consensus-based work, authored jointly by all the participants.

In fact, the energy crisis is already being tackled on several fronts. In the short term, it is being addressed with policies designed at the national and EU level to prevent increased social inequality; measures are also being taken to enable the economic system to stabilize the drag effect on prices. In the medium term, the transition to renewable energy is being encouraged, with the aim of achieving fuel independence. But from the point of view of Planetary Wellbeing, more elements should be added. One would be a global outlook, that is, global governance systems that make it possible to address challenges that are not actually contained by borders. This is obviously difficult to accomplish in a crisis stemming precisely from an armed conflict and a weakening of international agreements. Other components of the Planetary Wellbeing concept include awareness of the urgency and an impact orientation. We need to increase our capacity to respond to crises that will only become more frequent.

Antó, J. M.; Martí, J. L.; Casals, J.; Bou-Habib, P.; Casal, P.; Fleurbaey, M.; Frumkin, H.; Jiménez-Morales, M.; Jordana, J.; Lancelotti, C.; Llavador, H.; Mélon, L.; Solé, R.; Subirada, F.; & Williams, A. (2021). "The planetary wellbeing initiative: Pursuing the sustainable development goals in higher education". Sustainability (Switzerland), 13(6), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13063372