A study in Nature finds that with bold and coordinated policy choices—across emissions, diets, food waste, and water and nitrogen efficiency—humanity could, by 2050, bring global environmental pressures back to levels seen in 2015. This shift would move us much closer to a future in which people around the world can live well within Earth's limits.

The authors caution that the assumptions behind these scenarios are ambitious. “Systems are slow to change and we’re modeling near-universal shifts—like widespread dietary changes—which may be overly optimistic given current global trends,” they note.

“Nonetheless, the message is clear. We can still bend the curve,” says Van Vuuren.