Humanity faces a dilemma: The satisfaction of human needs gravely endangers the natural basis of life. As potential strategies for resolving this dilemma, we revisit the discourse on efficiency, sufficiency and consistency. Although there has been much discussion about the three strategies in recent decades, there is a lack of a clear distinction between the strategies and little understanding regarding their respective impact on both the environment and human needs satisfaction. This leads to persistent disagreement about which strategies are best suited to pursue in the short, medium and long term. In this article, we resolve this problem on a conceptual level through a graphical classification of the three strategies according to their effects on consumption levels and environmental impact. This framework contributes to the literature on energy transition and the circular economy as key paths to sustainability by showing the limited effects of efficiency and sufficiency strategies over the long run in contrast to the promise of the consistency strategy as a systemic change.

中文翻译：

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可持续发展的效率、充足性和一致性：重新评估实现总体目标的战略


人类面临一个两难境地：人类需求的满足严重危害了生命的自然基础。作为解决这一困境的潜在策略，我们重新审视了关于效率、充足性和一致性的讨论。尽管近几十年来对这三种策略进行了很多讨论，但这些策略之间缺乏明确的区别，并且对它们各自对环境和人类需求满足的影响知之甚少。这导致了关于哪些策略最适合在短期、中期和长期内追求的持续分歧。在本文中，我们根据三种策略对消费水平和环境影响的影响，对它们进行图形分类，在概念层面上解决了这个问题。该框架通过展示效率和充足战略的长期有限影响，与一致性战略作为系统性变革的承诺形成鲜明对比，为关于能源转型和循环经济作为可持续发展关键途径的文献做出了贡献。