The Center for Global Commons (CGC) at the University of Tokyo Institute for Future Initiatives and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), in collaboration with Yale University’s Center for Environmental Law & Policy, developed a report that provides the latest information on countries’ domestic and international spillover impacts on the Global Commons.

The Global Commons Stewardship (GCS) Index 2022 offers detailed analysis of impacts embedded in international trade flows. For example, it demonstrates that demand for clothing, textiles, and construction materials drives the majority of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions spillovers. It further shows that the demand for forestry, logging, and cattle drives deforestation spillovers, and the demand for rice and cereals drives water stress spillovers. The report includes detailed country profiles tracking their performance by indicator.

The report finds that the Global Commons, defined as “stable and resilient earth systems consisting of … the climate system, the land biosphere, and oceans,” are increasingly at risk as no country has achieved high levels of human development, measured by gross domestic product (GDP) per capita or the Human Development Index, “while fully mitigating their negative impacts on the environment.”

The authors call for urgent actions to ensure that economic systems and national policy frameworks address international spillovers by better integrating the value of natural capital as well as “the costs of failing to protect it.”

“Safeguarding the Global Commons requires actions from both producing countries and consuming countries,” said Naoko Ishii, Executive Vice President of the University of Tokyo, Director for the Center for Global Commons, and lead author of the report. She stressed the need “to make targets not only from domestic production, but also consumption viewpoints, and … to take actions towards valuing natural capital and incorporating it into economic decision making.”

Guillaume Lafortune, Vice President of the SDSN and co-author of the report, said “[t]he G20 presidencies of India (2023), Brazil (2024), and South Africa (2025) can provide momentum for concerted global actions and further efforts to reduce negative impacts on the Global Commons in producing and consuming countries to the benefit of the people and earth systems.”

The GCS Index is part of a suite of tools and reports prepared under the leadership of the Center for Global Commons at the University of Tokyo Institute for Future Initiatives, in cooperation with SDSN, SYSTEMIQ, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, the World Resources Institute (WRI), and the Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy. The Index was launched on 14 July 2023. [Publication: Global Commons Stewardship Index 2022: Tackling Environmental Spillovers] [Publication Landing Page] [SDSN Press Release]