Earth system governance is a paradigm that builds on earlier notions of environmental policy and nature conservation, but puts these into the broader context of human-induced transformations of the entire earth system. The integrative paradigm of earth system governance has evolved into an active research area that brings together a variety of disciplines including political science, sociology, economics, ecology, policy studies, geography, sustainability science, and law.[1]
The concept of earth system governance is defined as: "the interrelated and increasingly integrated system of formal and informal rules, rule-making systems, and actor-networks at all levels of human society (from local to global) that are set up to steer societies towards preventing, mitigating, and adapting to global and local environmental change and, in particular, earth system transformation, within the normative context of sustainable development."[2]
The new paradigm of earth system governance was originally developed in the Netherlands by Professor Frank Biermann in his inaugural lecture at the VU University Amsterdam, which was published later in 2007[3] Based on this pioneering contribution, Biermann was invited by the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change to develop a long-term comprehensive international programme in this field, which became in 2009 the global Earth System Governance Project.
Key researchers who have applied the earth system governance framework in their work include Michele Betsill (co-founder of the Earth System Governance Project), John Dryzek, Peter M. Haas, Norichika Kanie, Lennart Olsson, and Oran Young.
In 2012, 33 leading scholars from the Project wrote a blueprint for reform of strengthening earth system governance, which was published in Science.[4]
The idea of earth system governance has also been criticized for being too top-down, for placing too much emphasis on global governance structures. According to Mike Hulme, earth system governance represents an attempt to "geopolitically engineer" our way out of the climate crisis.[5] He questions whether the climate is governable and argues that it is way too optimistic and even hubristic to attempt to control the global climate by universal governance regimes.[6] This interpretation of the novel concept, however, has been rejected by other scholars as being too narrow and misleading.[7]
The Earth System Governance Project is a research network or alliance that builds on the work from research centers and researchers studying earth system governance. It is a long-term, interdisciplinary social science research alliance originally developed under the auspices of the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change.[8] The network started in January 2009.[8] Over time, it has evolved into a broader research alliance that builds on an international network of research centers, lead faculty and research fellows. It is now the largest social science research network in the area of governance and global environmental change.[9]
The secretariat, called International Project Office, has been hosted by Utrecht University, The Netherlands from 2019 to 2024.[10][11] Previously it was at United Nations University in Bonn, Germany (from 2009 to 2012) and Lund University, Sweden (from 2012 to 2018).