C4.2 Ecological Compliance
Ethical Integrity. Does the system satisfy justice requirements across time, groups, and power?
Pass threshold
Consumption-based carbon emissions falling ≥3.8% a year, biodiversity neutral or positive, resource extraction ≤ regeneration, no more than two of the four nationally downscaled planetary boundaries transgressed
Clause by clause:
- Consumption-based carbon emissions falling ≥3.8% a year
- biodiversity neutral or positive
- resource extraction ≤ regeneration
- no more than two of the four nationally downscaled planetary boundaries transgressed
What it asks
Economic activity within ecological carrying capacity, measured on consumption so that emissions and extraction moved abroad are not counted as reductions. Scored as one criterion among the rest; the constraint reading, in which a failure here caps the tier at Partially Adequate, is reported as a named Appendix A.4 scheme.
Why it matters
Planetary boundaries for climate, biodiversity, nitrogen/phosphorus cycles, and land use are being exceeded. Systems requiring perpetual expansion through limits are structurally doomed regardless of temporary success.
How it is measured
Clause 1 (carbon): consumption-based CO2 emissions (Global Carbon Budget national consumption-based accounts), compound annual rate of change over the scoring window; the bar is the rate of a 35% cut over 2019–2030, the low end of the 1.5 °C pathways of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (2023) that the Paper cites, and it binds at any date. Clause 2 (biodiversity): the IUCN Red List Index for the economy (SDG indicator 15.5.1), non-declining over the scoring window; for a design, the projected pressure on species and habitat. Clause 3 (resource extraction against regeneration): the ecological footprint of consumption per person no greater than world biocapacity per person (National Ecological Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts, Footprint Data Foundation and York University). Clause 4 (other boundaries): phosphorus, nitrogen, freshwater and land-system change, downscaled to national per-person boundaries and compared with consumption-based footprints (O'Neill et al. 2018; Fanning et al. 2022; goodlife.leeds.ac.uk). Circular-economy metrics (waste reduction, material reuse) are supporting evidence. For a design, each clause is projected on the same measure.
Indicators
Global Carbon Budget consumption-based emissions; IUCN Red List Index (SDG 15.5.1); National Ecological Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts; O'Neill et al. (2018) and Fanning et al. (2022) national boundary accounts.
How scores are anchored
1.0, pass
Ecological compliance is a hard design constraint, not an optimization target traded against growth. Participatory Economics (1.0): "Planning councils can directly constrain production/consumption within ecological limits... eliminated through comprehensive planning."
0.5, partial
Meaningful mitigation exists but growth or consumption imperatives are not fully subordinated to ecological limits. Nordic Social Democracy (0.5): "Leading in renewable energy and environmental policy, but still exceed planetary boundaries."
0.0, structural failure
Growth-dependent with no absolute-reduction mechanism, or relative/efficiency metrics substituting for absolute ones. Stakeholder Capitalism (0.0): "ESG metrics track relative improvements while absolute emissions continue rising... maintain business-as-usual."
Hold this one to absolute-reduction standards, not relative/efficiency framing. v2.0 (Session 45): this criterion's Pass Threshold was restated (K3, K4, R1, G3, S2; NEEC_Criteria_v2_s45.md). The band texts and examples were written against Paper v1.4's threshold: they describe, and the threshold above governs (protocol 2.3(g)). Examples are re-estimated in the rescoring pass.
Normative roots
From N6 (Ecological Compliance) + N12 (Intergenerational Equity).
Judgment calls on this criterion
How the systems score
0.5, partial
CCO-PTF-CIP-SZH, Participatory Economics, Integral, Degrowth Economics, Nordic Social Democracy, Market Socialism, Sovereign Wealth Fund Statism, Georgism / LVT, Ostrom Commons, Islamic Finance, Mutual Credit / LETS, Universal Basic Income, Universal Basic Services, MMT + Job Guarantee, State Capitalism / China, Fully Automated Luxury Communism, Doughnut Economics
0.0, structural failure
State Capitalism / Singapore, Status Quo Market Capitalism, Stakeholder Capitalism, State Capitalism / Qatar, Libertarian Minarchism, Centrally Planned Socialism
Sources
Definition: Paper Section 6; restated in v2.0 (NEEC_Criteria_v2_s45.md, Appendix V). Anchors: Paper Appendix H.7.