7  Page 8 sur 12 Today, we can see how problematic this statement is. We do not only need to make these resources (and ecosystem services) visible to the economic discipline (including through price signals), we also need to engage in a self-critical assessment to understand how the discipline may need to revisit some of its own assumptions to embed itself in nature. All this means that, if we really want to understand the macro-financial criticality of nature, we will need to engage in more conceptual and even philosophical debates. In other words, we cannot solve a problem with the mindset that contributed to generating it in the first place. 3. Central banking in the Anthropocene: some initial thoughts towards re-embedding our economic and financial systems within planetary boundaries What should we do, then, to re-embed economic and financial systems within our planetary boundaries? While I do not pretend to have the answer to such a question, let me open up a few avenues. As central banks and supervisors concerned primarily with price and financial stability, the first thing we can do is delve further into the assessment of financial risks, while being aware of the limitations of such an exercise because of the points I raised earlier. But perhaps we could at least be informed by some of the issues I discussed, and be willing to explore new frontiers.
For instance, we are currently facing a massive loss of biodiversity, to which some scientists refer to as the sixth mass extinctioniii and the first one caused by humankind. Indeed, the figures are daunting: according to the last WWF Living Planet Reportiv published this month, the world’s wildlife populations have declined by 69% on average since 1970. Other distressing biophysical patterns beyond climate change and biodiversity loss include pressures on freshwater availability and soil erosion. There is at least one conceptual framework to understand our multiple and interconnected ecological degradations, that of “planetary boundaries” developed by Johan Rockström and his colleagues.v These scientists identified and started to quantify nine planetary boundaries, which correspond to nine Earth subsystems or processes that define the “safe operating space for humanity”. Crossing certain thresholds (for instance, when there is too much CO2 concentrated in the atmosphere, or when biodiversity loss reaches a certain point) can trigger irreversible and massive consequences. These are the famous tipping points: when exceeded, specific Earth subsystems can irreversibly shift toward a new state, with potentially devastating consequences for human populations, let alone for ecosystems and other forms of life. For instance, evidence is mounting that tipping points related to the loss of the Amazon forest could occur more rapidly than previously thought, and have consequences on several planetary boundaries.