Sustainability and Climate Change Governance

Sustainability and climate change governance examines how societies reorganize their institutions, technologies, and practices to navigate environmental pressures—particularly the deep structural shifts, known as sustainability transitions, required to move away from fossil-fuel-dependent systems. At its core, the work treats human communities and natural environments as tightly coupled social-ecological systems, asking how governance arrangements can remain adaptive and resilient as conditions change in ways that are difficult to predict. Researchers are actively working out how to design policy mixes—combinations of regulations, incentives, and standards—that accelerate renewable energy deployment without triggering political backlash or locking in new technological dependencies. An open and pressing question is how scenario planning and transition management can be made genuinely useful to decision-makers operating under uncertainty, rather than remaining exercises confined to academic workshops.

Works

42,389

Total citations

576,815

Keywords

Sustainability TransitionsResilienceSocial-Ecological SystemsAdaptive GovernanceClimate Change AdaptationRenewable Energy