GRF · Climate and Nature Governance
Climate and Nature Governance
Institutions and policy frameworks responsible for climate, adaptation, nature and transboundary environmental priorities. Climate and Nature Governance is an established platform of The Global Risks Forum.
- STEM methods
- 5
- Canonical methods this field applies
- Topics
- 9
- Subject pages in the field
- Counterparts
- 14
- Platforms in shared fields across the network
- Report series
- 2
- Reports series it contributes to
The areas of climate and hazards this platform takes on.
Climate and Nature Governance studies how public institutions decide, fund and answer for action on a changing climate and declining nature: adaptation mandates, climate and biodiversity law, river basins, land and ocean tenure, disclosure rules and the gap between pledges and delivery. Its pages set out the mechanisms that make governance hold or fail, the records that show it, the methods that test it and the office holders who decide, with every source labelled by its evidence. Global Risks Forum convenes the dialogue; it does not negotiate or advise governments.
Adaptation institutions
National adaptation plans, mandates, coordination bodies, budgets and the local authorities that carry adaptation into land use, water and infrastructure.
Climate risk governance
How governments and boards assign ownership of climate risk, set objectives, and review progress through legislation, audit and oversight bodies.
Nature and biodiversity law
Biodiversity conventions, protected-area law, environmental assessment, species protection and the courts that interpret them.
River basin governance
Basin organisations, water allocation, transboundary treaties and the institutions that share water between users and countries.
Justice and equity
Who bears climate and nature risk, who decides, procedural rights to information and participation, and redress for loss and damage.
Land and ocean governance
Tenure, spatial planning, protected and conserved areas, fisheries management and the governance of the high seas.
Disclosure governance
Climate and nature disclosure standards, their adoption by jurisdictions, assurance, and the supervisors who enforce them.
Implementation gaps
The distance between targets, plans and budgets on one side and measured delivery on the other, and how it is reported and reviewed.
Adaptation plan tracker.
The screen a team would use to follow this field: its measures, states and decisions. Names are examples and values are illustrative.
Adaptation plan tracker
National adaptation council · Plan year 3
Actions on track by sector
Implementation gaps
| No drought allocation rule | Water | Mandate unclear | Basin commission |
| Heat plans missing | Health | Funding | Line ministry |
| Coastal setback unenforced | Cities | Capacity | Province D |
Adaptation cycle
- Assess risknational
- PlanNAP
- Implementsectors
- Monitorindicators
- Evaluatelearning
The questions this field works on.
Adaptation institutions
Mandates, financing and accountability.
TopicClimate risk governance
Risk science translation into governance.
TopicNature and biodiversity law
Ecosystem stewardship and public authority.
TopicRiver basin governance
Shared waters and transboundary mechanisms.
TopicClimate justice and equity
Differential exposure and access.
TopicLand and ocean governance
Commons and local stewardship.
TopicClimate disclosure governance
Public policy, claims and reporting.
TopicImplementation gaps
From strategy to monitored institutional practice.
TopicWater and food governance
Resource access, transboundary waters and food-system institutions.
Compare instruments: rules, incentives and information.
Three families of instruments side by side against the baseline, each with its own lag and adoption speed, under the coverage and compliance you set; effect sizes are teaching values to replace with evidence. Scenario: named assumptions about the future, not a forecast. The map on this page shows The Andes; the model itself is not tied to a place.
Controls
- Baseline trend of the outcome
- 2.0% a year
- Coverage of the instrument
- 70%
- Compliance
- 75%
- Effect size, against the teaching value
- 100%
- Years ahead
- 20 years
Readouts
- Largest reduction at the horizon
- Regulation
- Its reduction against the baseline
- 21%
Numbers, methods and sources
| Year | Baseline | Regulation | Economic incentive | Information and capacity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 100.0 | 99.5 | 98.8 | 99.1 |
| 1 | 102.0 | 101.2 | 100.1 | 99.8 |
| 2 | 104.0 | 102.5 | 101.1 | 99.9 |
| 3 | 106.1 | 103.5 | 101.6 | 100.0 |
| 4 | 108.2 | 103.7 | 101.8 | 100.7 |
| 5 | 110.4 | 103.2 | 101.7 | 102.1 |
| 6 | 112.6 | 102.0 | 101.6 | 103.9 |
| 7 | 114.9 | 100.4 | 101.6 | 105.9 |
| 8 | 117.2 | 99.2 | 102.1 | 108.0 |
| 9 | 119.5 | 98.6 | 102.9 | 110.1 |
| 10 | 121.9 | 98.9 | 104.2 | 112.3 |
| 11 | 124.3 | 99.7 | 105.7 | 114.5 |
| 12 | 126.8 | 101.1 | 107.4 | 116.8 |
| 13 | 129.4 | 102.7 | 109.4 | 119.2 |
| 14 | 131.9 | 104.5 | 111.4 | 121.6 |
| 15 | 134.6 | 106.5 | 113.5 | 124.0 |
| 16 | 137.3 | 108.5 | 115.7 | 126.5 |
| 17 | 140.0 | 110.7 | 118.0 | 129.0 |
| 18 | 142.8 | 112.9 | 120.4 | 131.6 |
| 19 | 145.7 | 115.1 | 122.8 | 134.2 |
| 20 | 148.6 | 117.4 | 125.2 | 136.9 |
Methods
- Tools of government Hood (1983), The Tools of Government, Macmillan
- Carrots, sticks and sermons Bemelmans-Videc, Rist and Vedung (1998), Transaction
- Diffusion of innovations Rogers (2003), Diffusion of Innovations, Free Press
- Uncertainty fan (parameter Monte Carlo) Spiegelhalter, Pearson and Short (2011), Visualising uncertainty about the future, Science 333
- One-at-a-time sensitivity (tornado) Saltelli and others (2008), Global Sensitivity Analysis: The Primer, Wiley
Data
The model runs on the teaching values set by the controls. To calibrate it for a place, read it against these admitted layers and series, which this page’s map can draw:
- Borders Natural Earth
- Cities Natural Earth
Across the six pillars, led by Nexus Consortium
- Experiments Labs
- Built in Climate and Nature Governance in Foundry
- Tested at Climate and Nature Governance in Universe
- Codified in Climate and Earth Systems in Standards
- Published in Climate and Nature Governance in Reports
- Taught in Faculty of Earth and Environmental Sciences in Academy
What the work is read against.
The platform does not set standards. It reads its evidence against the frameworks that competent bodies have adopted, so a finding can be placed where a decision-maker already works.
| Framework or standard | Body | What it sets |
|---|---|---|
| Paris Agreement and its enhanced transparency framework | United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) | Nationally determined contributions, the global goal on adaptation, biennial transparency reports and the global stocktake |
| Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework | Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) | Goals and targets for nature to the end of the decade, including conservation, restoration, finance and corporate disclosure, reported through national strategies |
| Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction | United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) | Priorities and targets for understanding and governing disaster risk, monitored through the Sendai Framework Monitor |
| Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes | UNECE, open to all UN member states | Obligations to prevent transboundary harm, use shared waters equitably and cooperate through joint bodies |
| Agreement under UNCLOS on marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ) | United Nations | Area-based management tools including marine protected areas on the high seas, environmental impact assessment and benefit sharing |
| Aarhus Convention and Escazú Agreement | UNECE; UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean | Rights of access to environmental information, public participation in decisions and access to justice, with protection for environmental defenders in Escazú |
| IFRS S1 and IFRS S2 | International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) | General sustainability-related and climate-related financial disclosure requirements that jurisdictions adopt or adapt into law |
| TNFD recommendations and the LEAP approach | Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures | Disclosure of nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities, which the ISSB has said it will draw on in its nature work |
| Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure | Committee on World Food Security, FAO | Principles for governing tenure of land, fisheries and forests, including recognition of customary rights |
From mandate to evaluation, by pillar.
The steps an instrument takes from mandate to evaluation, each with the pillar that runs it, and the decisions that stay with the authority. Teaching model with stated illustrative values, not a prediction. The map on this page shows The Andes; the model itself is not tied to a place.
- Mandate and problem framing Competent authority (outside the programme)
A competent authority frames the problem and the mandate under its own rules. Howlett, Ramesh and Perl (2009) - Evidence and system model Foundry
The system is modelled with its feedbacks, data and stated limits. OECD (2014), principle 2 - Options appraised with scenarios Foundry
Instruments are compared under scenarios, with uncertainty shown. Hood (1983) - Exercise with stakeholders Universe
The options are tested in an exercise with those who would implement and bear them. OECD (2014), principle 3 - Standard or guidance drafted Nexus Standards
What works is codified as a standard or guidance, open to comment. Nexus Standards process - Decision by the authority Competent authority (outside the programme)
The authority decides, outside the programme, with the evidence on record. Howlett, Ramesh and Perl (2009) - Capacity and training Risk Academy
Those who implement are trained on the decided instrument and its data. Sendai Framework (2015), priority 2 - Monitoring and public report Reports
Indicators are published with sources, limits and corrections. OECD (2014), principle 5 - Evaluation and revision Nexus Standards
Results return to the standard and the model: the cycle closes. Howlett, Ramesh and Perl (2009)
Methods
- Policy cycle Howlett, Ramesh and Perl (2009), Studying Public Policy, Oxford University Press
- Governance of critical risks OECD (2014), Recommendation of the Council on the Governance of Critical Risks
- Layered drawing of directed graphs Sugiyama, Tagawa and Toda (1981), IEEE SMC 11
Across the six pillars, led by Nexus Consortium
- Experiments Labs
- Built in Climate and Nature Governance in Foundry
- Tested at Climate and Nature Governance in Universe
- Codified in Climate and Earth Systems in Standards
- Published in Climate and Nature Governance in Reports
- Taught in Faculty of Earth and Environmental Sciences in Academy
What Climate and Nature Governance does.
Climate and nature governance is the system of mandates, laws, budgets, courts and review bodies through which institutions decide and answer for action on climate and nature. Global Risks Forum’s platform compares adaptation institutions, biodiversity law, basin agreements, tenure, disclosure regimes and implementation gaps, and names who holds each decision.
Its community
Climate governance researchers; environment agencies; regional bodies; conservation institutions.
Its methods
Comparative governance analysis; institutional mandate mapping.
Its outputs
Climate governance dossiers; nature-policy dialogues; adaptation policy briefs.
Exercise a cascade in Climate and Nature Governance with the people who decide.
Assembled from the Nexus Standards area profile Climate adaptation and transition risk: the hazards it names, the systems and communities that carry the loss, the controls and institutions that dampen it and the data that observe it. Pick an initiating event and step through the cascade to see where mandates meet and which decisions fall to whom. The Map view places the run on an example geography with open data. Every weight is a stated assumption. An exercise for dialogue, not a forecast, an assessment or a position. To model a place of your own choosing, open the full System Builder.
Hazards
- Sea-level rise
- Heatwave
- Windstorm
- Flash flood
- Meteorological drought
- Groundwater depletion
- Widespread power outage (set off downstream)
- Large forest disturbance (set off downstream)
- Wildfire (set off downstream)
- Extreme fire weather (set off downstream)
- Heat-driven grid stress (set off downstream)
- Agricultural drought (set off downstream)
- Flash drought (set off downstream)
- Snow drought (set off downstream)
- Ground-level ozone episode (set off downstream)
- Debris flow (set off downstream)
- Hydrological drought (set off downstream)
- Peat and underground fire (set off downstream)
Systems and couplings
- Climate adaptation and transition risk
- Climate risk standards Mechanism
- Financial and economic risk standards Cascade
- Energy risk standards Feedback
- Water risk standards Maladaptation risk
Controls
NS-0Constitution and principlesNS-3Risk record UNIs (grammar, legacy crosswalk, allocation authority)NS-9Contextual UNIs (deployments, instances, programme instances)NS-10Policies and clauses (machine-readable obligations: definition, binding, evaluation and enforcement)NS-11Verification and monitoring (evidence, attestations, zero-trust conformance observation)NS-14Conformance and crosswalk to external standardsNRS-X1Climate change risk and adaptationNRS-T16AI agents and autonomous decision systems riskNRS-H65Hazard family: Planetary boundary transgressions (NHS-1 planet.boundary)NRS-I7Intelligence applications: grounded retrieval, reasoning and decision supportNRS-K20Domain pack profile: Climate adaptation (DOMAIN-020)NRS-K21Domain pack profile: Climate mitigation carbon (DOMAIN-021)
Observation
- CMIP6 climate projections (Copernicus Climate Data Store) (listed for reference)
- NGFS Scenario Explorer (listed for reference)
- ERA5 reanalysis (Copernicus Climate Data Store) (listed for reference)
- World Bank Open Data and World Development Indicators API (listed for reference)
- Number of countries with nationally determined contributions, long-term strategies, national adaptation plans and adaptation communications
- Number of countries that adopt and implement national DRR strategies in line with the Sendai Framework
Example geography
- Pacific Island states: 150 hexagonal cells
- Night lights tonight, outages (VIIRS Day/Night Band), NASA GIBS
- Surface air temperature, daytime (AIRS), NASA GIBS
- Rain rate, last half hour (IMERG), NASA GIBS
- Surface water through cloud, 30 m (OPERA DSWx-S1 radar), NASA GIBS
The science is clear enough; the institutions are not keeping pace.
Climate change and the loss of nature are physical processes, but whether societies manage them well is a question of institutions: who holds authority, who pays, who is accountable and whether commitments become practice.
Who is responsible
Overlapping or missing mandates across ministries, levels of government and borders.
From pledge to practice
Commitments that lack budgets, lead agencies, monitoring or enforcement.
Who bears the costs
Unequal exposure and voice, which shape trust in climate and nature policy.
Climate risk does not respect administrative boundaries. A drought may span several countries and ministries; a river basin may be shared by states with different laws; a coastline may be managed by national, regional and municipal authorities with overlapping mandates. Ecosystems that regulate water, protect coasts and sustain food production often fall between agencies, or are governed by rules written for a stable climate.
Governance failures cascade in recognisable ways. Adaptation plans without budgets or lead agencies remain on paper. Protected areas without enforcement or local consent degrade. Transboundary agreements that allocate fixed volumes of water break down when flows change. Disclosure rules that are inconsistent across jurisdictions produce data that cannot be compared. Costs fall hardest on communities with the least voice in decisions, including Indigenous peoples and the rural poor, which erodes trust and the legitimacy of further action.
The governance problem is to understand which institutional arrangements work, where mandates overlap or leave gaps, and how evidence can reach the people who decide.
Why now: countries are implementing a new round of national climate plans after the first Global Stocktake (2023) and national biodiversity strategies under the Kunming-Montreal framework (2022), and the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion (2025) has sharpened questions of state duty. The platform is designed to convene the institutions that carry these duties, test arrangements such as drought sharing in Universe, and feed reviewed findings to Reports.
Who a decision on Climate and Nature Governance reaches.
The sectors a policy on Climate and Nature Governance has to coordinate: a choice in one ministry lands in the others.
Signature
Biodiversity and its partners
Biodiversity gives pollination and soils to food (0.6), watershed regulation to water (0.5) and zoonotic spillover and medicines to health (0.4).
W · E · I · F · H · B
- Sectors
- 4 of 6
- Relations
- 6 of 15
- Coupling
- 0.46 share of total
Strongest relations in play
- Food → Biodiversity · land conversion0.6
- Water → Food · irrigation0.8
- Water → Biodiversity · environmental flows0.6
- Food → Health · nutrition0.7
Comparative governance analysis and convening.
The platform’s methods are comparative governance analysis and institutional mandate mapping. It is designed to publish climate governance dossiers, convene nature-policy dialogues and produce adaptation policy briefs that public institutions and regional bodies can examine and use.
Who it serves
Climate governance researchers, environment agencies, regional bodies and conservation institutions, with ministries, parliaments and civil society.
How it works
Comparative analysis of laws and institutions, mapping of mandates and accountability, and structured dialogue between those responsible.
What it is designed to publish
Climate governance dossiers, nature-policy dialogue records and adaptation policy briefs.
GRF convenes and governs programmes. It does not regulate, finance, procure or certify, and hosting or sponsorship confers no authority over findings.
How Climate and Nature Governance is governed: instruments, mandates and commitments.
The instruments, mandates, actors and accountability arrangements a policymaker, diplomat or development agency works with, citing the agreements that set them. Structures follow the frameworks named. Any state or progress drawn is illustrative, not a record.
Mandates and agreements over time
The agreements that set mandates and commitments on Climate and Nature Governance, from adoption to their current horizon.
- 1992UNFCCC and Convention on Biological DiversityUnited Nations
- 2015Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk ReductionUNDRR
- 20152030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development GoalsUnited Nations
- 2015Paris AgreementUNFCCC
- 2022Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity FrameworkCBD
- 2023First global stocktake under the Paris AgreementUNFCCC
- 2030Horizon of the 2030 Agenda and the Sendai FrameworkUnited Nations
Development outcomes
The Sustainable Development Goals and targets that outcomes on Climate and Nature Governance are reported against.
| Goal | Target | How this subject links |
|---|---|---|
| Goal 13, climate action | Target 13.1, resilience and adaptive capacity | Outcomes reported through the agreed indicator of the target |
| Goal 15, life on land | Target 15.5, halt biodiversity loss | Outcomes reported through the agreed indicator of the target |
| Goal 6, clean water and sanitation | Target 6.5, integrated water resources management | Outcomes reported through the agreed indicator of the target |
| Goal 2, zero hunger | Target 2.4, sustainable and resilient food production | Outcomes reported through the agreed indicator of the target |
| Goal 16, peace, justice and strong institutions | Target 16.6, effective, accountable and transparent institutions | Outcomes reported through the agreed indicator of the target |
Science from GCRI, finance from GRA, governance here.
The platform grounds its work in climate and atmospheric science, ecology and biodiversity science, policy, institutional and decision science, hydrology and water science and agricultural, soil and food science; see the STEM foundation. Its counterparts study the same systems as science at The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI) and as financial-sector understanding at Global Risks Alliance (GRA).
- Water NexusInstitutionThe Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI)What it addsWater science: catchments, aquifers, utilities and shared basins.
- Climate and HazardsInstitutionThe Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI)What it addsClimate and hazard science.
- Biodiversity NexusInstitutionThe Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI)What it addsEcology and biodiversity science.
- Food NexusInstitutionThe Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI)What it addsFood and agricultural systems science.
- Climate and Nature Financial RiskInstitutionGlobal Risks Alliance (GRA)What it addsShared industry understanding of climate and nature financial risk.
- Insurance NexusInstitutionGlobal Risks Alliance (GRA)What it addsHow the insurance sector understands climate-related loss.
The full list is on counterparts across the Consortium; the field gateway is Climate and hazards.
Habitat condition in the Andes.
Vegetation, land cover and population density over the Andes, from NASA GIBS. Each layer carries its own date.
The interactive map needs JavaScript; the layer list and sources are below.
Layers 3
Habitat condition, for this page
About this layer
- Evidence
- Observed (clouds leave gaps)
- Source
- MODIS Terra EVI (NASA LANCE)
- Provider
- NASA LANCE
- Licence
- NASA open data
- Vintage
- daily; Satellite index; clouds leave gaps
- Newest at build
- 2026-10-13
- Resolution
- about 250 m grid
- Uncertainty
- Satellite vegetation index for the 8 days to the date shown, a habitat condition indicator; not a measure of species or biodiversity.
- Reached through
- gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov, only after you allow the live map
About this layer
- Evidence
- Modelled (latest year GIBS publishes)
- Source
- MODIS Terra and Aqua land cover (MCD12Q1) (NASA LP DAAC)
- Provider
- NASA LP DAAC
- Licence
- NASA open data
- Vintage
- yearly; Satellite classification; latest year GIBS publishes
- Newest at build
- 2024-01-01
- Resolution
- about 500 m grid
- Uncertainty
- Satellite land cover classes for the year shown, including croplands; a classification with known errors, not a farm register.
- Reached through
- gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov, only after you allow the live map
About this layer
- Evidence
- Estimated
- Source
- Gridded Population of the World v4.11 (NASA SEDAC (CIESIN, Columbia University))
- Provider
- NASA SEDAC (CIESIN, Columbia University)
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0
- Vintage
- null; Census-based estimate, static (2020)
- Resolution
- about 1 km grid
- Uncertainty
- Census-based estimate of people per square kilometre in 2020, shown as exposure context; not a count of people affected by any hazard.
- Reached through
- gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov, only after you allow the live map
About this layer
- Evidence
- Observed (clouds leave gaps)
- Source
- VIIRS Global Flood Product (NASA LANCE)
- Provider
- NASA LANCE
- Licence
- NASA open data
- Vintage
- daily; Satellite detection; clouds leave gaps
- Newest at build
- 2026-10-14
- Resolution
- about 250 m grid
- Uncertainty
- Satellite detection; clouds leave gaps. Satellite or model raster as the provider publishes it. Clouds, swath gaps and retrieval error leave gaps and noise; values are indicators, not measurements at a place.
- Reached through
- gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov, only after you allow the live map
About this layer
- Evidence
- Observed (clouds and overpass timing leave gaps)
- Source
- VIIRS NOAA-20 375 m (FIRMS) (NASA LANCE FIRMS)
- Provider
- NASA LANCE FIRMS
- Licence
- NASA open data
- Vintage
- daily; Satellite detection; clouds and overpass timing leave gaps
- Newest at build
- 2026-10-13
- Resolution
- about 500 m grid
- Uncertainty
- Satellite hot-spot detections for the day shown, including gas flares and industrial heat; not a confirmed fire, an incident report or a warning.
- Reached through
- gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov, only after you allow the live map
About this layer
- Evidence
- Estimated
- Source
- GPM IMERG (NASA GES DISC)
- Provider
- NASA GES DISC
- Licence
- NASA open data
- Vintage
- daily; Satellite estimate, near real time
- Newest at build
- 2026-10-12
- Resolution
- about 2 km grid
- Uncertainty
- Satellite estimate, near real time. Satellite or model raster as the provider publishes it. Clouds, swath gaps and retrieval error leave gaps and noise; values are indicators, not measurements at a place.
- Reached through
- gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov, only after you allow the live map
Keyboard, with the map focused
Hold Ctrl or ⌘ and scroll to zoom
Latest available
NASA GIBS / EOSDIS · ASTER GDEM (METI, NASA) · Blue Marble (NASA) · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · Natural Earth
Loading the latest NASA imagery.
Drag to move. Ctrl or ⌘ and scroll, pinch or the buttons to zoom; hover for the values under the pointer; reset returns to the region.
Habitat condition, framed on the Andes.Satellite and model products as NASA publishes them, each with its own date. They are indicators, not assessments of any place.
Data: NASA GIBS · ASTER GDEM · Blue Marble · © OpenStreetMap contributors · Natural Earth · NASA EONET · NASA JPL OPERA DIST-ALERT · U.S. Geological SurveySources and licences
- We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA’s Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA’s Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA’s Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA’s Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- MODIS land products (vegetation indices, gross primary production, land cover), NASA LP DAAC and LANCE; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Columbia University. 2018. Gridded Population of the World, Version 4 (GPWv4): Population Density, Revision 11. NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). doi:10.7927/H49C6VHW. CC BY 4.0
- VIIRS near-real-time products (flood, land surface temperature, snow cover, corrected reflectance), NASA LANCE; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- NASA Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS), VIIRS 375 m active fire product, NASA LANCE; vector tiles via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- GPM IMERG precipitation, NASA Precipitation Processing System; distributed by the NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- ASTER GDEM is a product of METI and NASA (ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003, NASA LP DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). Cite as: NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Spacesystems and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (2019). ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003. doi:10.5067/ASTER/ASTGTM.003. NASA open data
- Made with Natural Earth. Free vector and raster map data @ naturalearthdata.com. Public domain
- © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), via NASA GIBS (coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). ODbL
- Blue Marble, NASA Earth Observatory; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- Context on the globe and flat map: coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names from NASA GIBS reference layers (OpenStreetMap data, ODbL, © OpenStreetMap contributors); Blue Marble imagery as an optional base; 3D terrain and the elevation read-out from the ASTER GDEM elevation colour index (5 m to 200 m classes, exaggerated for legibility). Boundaries are drawn as published and imply no position on any territory.
- Live events: NASA Earth Observatory Natural Event Tracker (EONET); events are indicative and keep their original source links.
- Live: NASA EONET Events are indicative, not authority warnings.
- Observed (EO): NASA JPL OPERA DIST-ALERT (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2026). We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA’s Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA’s Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS).
- Live: U.S. Geological Survey Events are indicative, not authority warnings.
- NASA GIBS: We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA’s Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA’s Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS).
- Optional layers (7 sources in the layer list: live, forecast, observed and context) print their provider credit on the map and here when switched on; forecasts are model output and derived indices are estimates.
Layers and dates
- Enhanced vegetation index, rolling 8 days: MODIS Terra EVI, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026
- Land cover type (IGBP), yearly: MODIS Terra and Aqua land cover (MCD12Q1), NASA LP DAAC · 2024
- Population density, 2020: Population: CIESIN, Columbia University, Gridded Population of the World v4.11 (2018), NASA SEDAC, CC BY 4.0 · static
- Flood water, 3-day composite: VIIRS Global Flood Product, NASA LANCE · 14 Oct 2026
- Active fires and thermal anomalies: VIIRS NOAA-20 375 m (FIRMS), NASA LANCE FIRMS · 13 Oct 2026
- Precipitation rate, daily mean: GPM IMERG, NASA GES DISC · 12 Oct 2026
Built on named science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Every claim on Climate and Nature Governance rests on methods with a canonical page in the STEM Commons, so readers can see what a finding depends on and where its limits lie.
How work moves in this field.
A question becomes evidence, a governed build, an organised community, a controlled test, a reviewed publication and, finally, a decision taken by the competent authority under its own rules.
- Question Universe National, regional or institutional priority. Question in Climate and Nature Governance
- Evidence Foundry STEM foundation of the platform. Evidence in Climate and Nature Governance
- Build Foundry Foundry. Build in Climate and Nature Governance
- Organise Universe Nexus ecosystem. Organise in Climate and Nature Governance
- Test Universe Universe (independent site). Test in Climate and Nature Governance
- Publish Reports Reports. Publish in Climate and Nature Governance
- Decide Competent authority Competent authorities and institutions, through NXS-RLS (participants, agreements and handoffs). Decide in Climate and Nature Governance
- Renew Universe Corrections and the next annual agenda. Renew in Climate and Nature Governance
Each step of the cycle in the pillar it runs in; the decision stays with the competent authority, outside the programme.
- Labs
- Foundry
- Universe
- Nexus Standards
- Reports
- Risk Academy
- Competent authority (outside the programme)
How this works across the six pillars.
Climate and Nature Governance works through six pillars of one annual programme, led by the Nexus Consortium, with GCRI, GRF and GRA each contributing in its role: explore, experiment and prototype in Labs, build, simulate and prepare in Foundry, convene and test in Universe, codify, correct and apply in Nexus Standards, publish in every format in Reports, teach in the open in Risk Academy.
handoff in playrecorded handoffno direct handoff
Programme yearAll phases
Route
The whole programme
Every pillar hands its work to another; together they close the year’s feedback loops.
L · F · U · S · R · A
- Pillars
- 6 of 6
- Handoffs
- 18 of 18
- Loops
- 17 closed
Handoffs in play
- F01Universe → Foundry · Admitted mission becomes a cycle project with a decision caseReadiness preparation
- F02Foundry → Universe · Core Build Report and go or no-go evidenceControlled build
- F03Foundry → Reports · Sealed observations and indicator series behind a profileCloseout
- F04Universe → Reports · After-action and scenario findings for chapters 10 and 13After-action review
and 14 more
- LabsWhere questions become experiments and prototypes: new methods, data and tools are tried in the open, with their limits on record, before the Foundry builds them, under the Nexus Consortium.Labs
- FoundryWhere the evidence behind a mandate or commitment is built, with its owner and limits on record.Climate and Nature Governance in FoundryFoundry
- UniverseWhere mandates become missions: GRF records each gate, convenes the parties and keeps implementation accountable.Climate and Nature Governance in Universeuniverse.nexus
- Nexus StandardsWhere shared rules are agreed in the open; each jurisdiction decides adoption, and no global body holds a veto.Climate and Earth Systems in Standardsnexustandards.com
- ReportsWhere governance analysis and the year’s results are published, so commitments can be followed and checked.Climate and Nature Governance in ReportsReports
- Risk AcademyWhere policymakers, diplomats and agency staff learn the programme roles and decision-making on the record, on Risk Academy.Faculty of Earth and Environmental Sciences in Academyrisksacademy.com
The same field, seen three ways.
GCRI studies a field as science, GRF governs it and GRA builds shared financial understanding of it. Climate and Nature Governance links to its counterparts so that work on one side is visible on the others.
- Water NexusInstitutionGCRIShared fieldWater, Climate and hazards
- Food NexusInstitutionGCRIShared fieldFood and agriculture, Climate and hazards
- Energy NexusInstitutionGCRIShared fieldClimate and hazards
- Biodiversity NexusInstitutionGCRIShared fieldBiodiversity and nature, Climate and hazards
- Climate and HazardsInstitutionGCRIShared fieldClimate and hazards
- Disaster Resilience and RecoveryInstitutionGCRIShared fieldClimate and hazards
- Oceans and CoastsInstitutionGCRIShared fieldClimate and hazards, Biodiversity and nature
- Space and Earth ObservationInstitutionGCRIShared fieldClimate and hazards
Pages in Climate and Nature Governance.
Mandate, publisher and status
PageDiscipline and institutional issues
PageResearch and institutional knowledge
PageProfessional practice
PageDialogues and cooperation
PageProgrammes and projects
PageAnnual programme contribution
PageSpecialist and institutional community
PageLeadership and skills
PageConvenings and dialogues
PagePublished findings
PageParticipate
PageInstitutional contact
PageTransparency, rights and safeguards
PageSTEM foundation of Climate and Nature Governance
PageChapters
PageHow work moves in this field
PageBuild in Foundry
PageTest in Universe
PagePublish in Reports
PageThe same field across the Consortium
PageTopics
Where this page leads across the Consortium.
Questions and answers.
Who publishes Climate and Nature Governance?
Is Climate and Nature Governance active?
How can I contribute?
Where are findings published?
Which values on this platform are real?
How do I report an error?
Does the platform make climate or environmental policy?
How is this different from climate science platforms?
Contribute evidence from this page.
Reports is the Consortium’s quarterly publication. What you know about this subject can become evidence, a case or a correction in the next edition, credited to you and published under CC BY 4.0 where it is your own work.
- EmailGateway GW-GRFSend it from this pageEvidence, a correction, a case, a method, a review, a translation or profile input. It arrives tagged with this page, so the editor who owns it receives it.
- ZenodoOpen depositDeposit it and submit to the communityPublish your own record on Zenodo with your ORCID iD, then submit it to the Reports community there. Curators review it; the DOI stays yours.
- ReportsGlobal Risks ForumSee every way to contributeThe contribution types, how each is reviewed, what credit you receive, the licence and what is never accepted.
Never send personal data, sensitive infrastructure detail or anything you have no right to share. A contribution is reviewed before use; sending it confers no authorship or editorial rights, and sponsorship never buys a finding.
How Climate and Nature Governance works.
Choose a view and press Play to follow the platform’s process, its programme year, the standards it applies and how its findings are published. The outline shows how the work is designed to run, not the status of any decision.
Climate and Nature Governance
How Climate and Nature Governance works
Platforms · Programme year · Standards · Reports
A platform joins a field to named methods, labelled evidence and the outputs it publishes, without becoming the authority it serves.
01 Scope
- 01Field and familiesStart · The platform leadThe home states the field, its families and who it serves.
- 02Topic dossiersRecord · Platform authorsTopics explain the subject with labelled evidence.
02 Evidence
- 03Evidence labelsRecord · GCRIEach value is labelled: observed, published statistics, estimated, modelled, scenario or unknown.
- 04MethodsStep · Method ownersMethods come from the STEM Commons, each with one canonical page.
03 Work
- 05Scenarios on the systemsModel · Foundry pillarScenarios run on the Nexus systems, labelled as scenario.
- 06Standards that applyRecord · Nexus StandardsThe platform names the standards that apply. A validator report is evidence for review.
04 Publish
- 07EditionsRecord · ReportsFindings are published through Reports with their limits.
- 08Authority decidesOutcome · The competent authorityDecisions and execution stay with the government, operator or licensed institution.
Climate and Nature Governance home · Platforms · Shared methodsAn outline of how the work is designed to run; it does not report the status of any decision or record.
Take part in Climate and Nature Governance.
Start from who you are. Answer an open call. Or form and lead a competence cell on the Climate and Nature Governance platform.
National institutions
Ministries, statistics offices and agencies: a national desk and chapter, and a seat in the working groups. National chapters
Sectors and professions
Operators, regulators, banks, insurers and professional bodies whose work touches Climate and Nature Governance. Participate
Learning
Courses and practice, with a record of every course completed. Free to study. Open learning
Standards
Draft, review and adopt the methods and data standards with the working groups. Working groups
Communities and research
Universities, civil society and individual experts: projects, data and review. Write to the team
| Open call | Seeks | Closes |
|---|---|---|
| Founding call for experts to the working groups CALL-FOUNDING-EXPERTS | expert, editor, chair | 2026-12-15 |
| Open nomination for the three independent expert seats of the Global Standards Council CALL-GSC-IND | council-member | 2026-12-01 |
| Nominations of interim regional members (applies only if the transitional provision is decided) CALL-GSC-REG | council-member | 2026-12-15 |
| Review of the wave-1 risk core outlines (C1, C2, C3, C4, C8, C10, C11) CALL-REVIEW-WAVE1 | contributor | 2027-01-31 |
| Experts for the core standards of risk science: uncertainty and evidence grading, scales, structured expert judgement, tolerability, extremes and compound events, catastrophic and existential risk, ethics and equity, units and measurement (NRS-C17 to NRS-C24) CALL-CORE-SCIENCE | expert, editor, chair | 2027-01-31 |
| Independent reviewers for the families of the hazard atlas, three from at least two regions for each family (NHS2-R19), priority families first CALL-ATLAS-REVIEW | expert | 2027-03-31 |
| Members of the interim Frontier Safety Review Panel and red-team reviewers (biosafety and biosecurity, AI safety and security, critical-infrastructure security); applications treated in confidence CALL-FRONTIER-SAFETY-REVIEW | expert | 2026-11-30 |
| Experts in ontology, metrology, software verification and conformity assessment for the requirement register, the NHS-2 machine representation, the conformance test suites and the conformity assessment scheme CALL-CONFORMANCE-ONTOLOGY | expert, editor | 2027-01-31 |
Calls past their closing date are hidden automatically. Every call, proposal and route: open areas and calls.
Gather the cell
Bring together three to seven people with complementary skills: data, field practice, policy and communication.
Register it
Write to the team with the cell’s name, members, area and region. You receive a reference and a contact. Write to the team
Choose a charter
Pick one focus: research and evidence, data and maps, standards review, or community preparedness.
Learn together
Follow shared study paths at Risk Academy, with practice and a record of every course completed. Hazards and resilience
Lead and report
Hold regular sessions. Publish what the cell learns through Reports. Bring findings to the working groups. Working groups
What a national team or a local community can do on The Global Risks Index (NXS-GRX) today.
Your country’s profile
Open risk profiles for 195 countries, with sources and licences on every value. Open the Index
Correct or reply
Correct a value or reply for your country. The change is logged with its effect. Open the Index
Offer data
Offer a dataset. It enters through the licence gate, with your credit. Open the Index
Every figure on this page is indexed: environment, economy, climate, The Andes.
The Index is the Consortium’s indexing system for risk data. Every indicator, hazard, series and country profile carries its Nexus Standards identifier, its source and its licence, so what this page shows can be traced, corrected and reused.
- 01 · Sources205 registered sourcesEvery value keeps its source and licence; withheld values are counted.Data and licences
- 02 · Nexus StandardsNIS-1 and NHS-1451 indicators, 905 hazards; every record carries a UNI.Nexus Standards
- 03 · The Index54 series, 195 country profilesComputed on the standards; no value is published until an edition is released.The Global Risks Index
- 04 · This pageClimate and Nature GovernanceMaps, figures and feeds read the Index in the context of environment, economy, climate and The Andes.Public API
Series in this context environment, economy, climate
- GSGlobal BiodiversityEnvironmental pressure, ecosystem condition, nature dependency of economies and the nature–climate–water–food feedbacks.NXS-GRX-AR-000069Environment · Climate · Economy
- GSGlobal Food and agrifoodAcute and chronic food insecurity, production shocks, import dependency, prices, fertiliser and logistics chokepoints, nutrition and pollination dependency.NXS-GRX-AR-000061Climate · Economy · Environment
- GLBGlobal SystemsThe state of interdependent global risk: the twenty domain indices aggregated to the world, the five core systems (water, energy, food, health, biodiversity) and their couplings, the global tail register and the gap…NXS-GRX-AR-000002Climate · Economy · Environment
- GSGlobal Earth observationWhat Earth observation can and cannot see of risk: coverage, revisit, latency and the observing systems NXS-GRX (canonical data, provenance and risk) depends on.NXS-GRX-AR-000070Climate · Environment
Country profiles The Andes
Every country profile carries the source and licence of each value. Correct a value or reply
Hazard domains NHS-1
- Land and ecosystemsNXS-GRX-AR-000140
- Planetary boundaries and Earth-system tippingNXS-GRX-AR-000141
Geodata and API open
Open layers on an equal-area hexagon grid, shown as densities per km² or as symbols: People · GHSL 2025People · WorldPop 2025Built-up areaPortsAirportsRoadsRailwaysRivers and lake centrelines
/api/v1/public/grix · https://nexustandards.com/uni/{uni}
Developers · Data · Made with Natural Earth, Public domain; GHSL and WorldPop, CC BY 4.0
Snapshot of the Index registries pinned 2026-10-23 · 22c6eed. Research and risk-analytics information: not a rating, an official classification, a warning, a benchmark or advice.
Bring a governance question to the Forum.
Information and enquiries are open today. An enquiry receives a reference and names the next step; applications, payments, compute allocations and registrations open only when their team, terms and review capacity exist.
Legal documents.
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Maps, data and figures on this site are shown for context and general information. They are not advice, forecasts or warnings; the limits of the information are set out in the Disclaimers and Data Notices.