The Global Risks Forum (GRF)
Decisions on climate, adaptation and nature are taken by many hands under different legal authorities. This page locates the competent public and sectoral decision-makers in the field, describes the rights of affected communities and sets out the boundary between what those authorities decide and what a forum such as The Global Risks Forum (GRF) can contribute through evidence and dialogue.
The interactive map needs JavaScript; the layer list and sources are below.
Layers 4
Climate signals, for this page
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.
For decision-rights context, in GRF's situational-awareness reading, the map opens on population density, land cover, daytime surface heat and vegetation with vegetation disturbance alerts from NASA GIBS, framed on the Andes; 2 further NASA layers wait in the list.Satellite and model products as NASA publishes them, each with its own date; indicators, not assessments of any place; claim ceiling INTEGRATED.
Layers and dates
Decision rights in Climate and Nature Governance define who decides what in climate and hazards, biodiversity and nature, water, and food and agriculture: public authorities take statutory decisions, operators and institutions take operational ones, and affected communities, including Indigenous rights holders, hold rights of consent and participation. The platform brings evidence and options to those who decide and takes no decision itself.
Fig.How GCRI, GRF and GRA share one field while the authorities decide. Design, not a record.
The working screen behind this subject: its structure, terms and states. Names are placeholders and values illustrative.
| Level | Typical decision-makers | Examples of decisions |
|---|---|---|
| International | Parties to multilateral agreements and their bodies | Collective goals, reporting frameworks and cooperation mechanisms. |
| Regional and basin | Regional bodies and basin organisations created by states | Shared monitoring, allocation rules and joint programmes, within the powers states give them. |
| National | Legislatures, ministries, environment and water agencies, regulators | Framework laws, national plans, permits, budgets and standards. |
| Subnational and local | Provinces, municipalities, planning authorities, utilities | Land use, building codes, local adaptation and service delivery. |
| Courts and oversight | Courts, auditors, ombudspersons, parliamentary committees | Review of legality, rights and value for money. |
| Decision | Holder |
|---|---|
| Submit an NDC | Government |
| Designate a protected area | Competent national or subnational authority |
| Allocate water in a basin | Basin authority or water regulator |
| Approve high seas area-based management tools | BBNJ Conference of the Parties |
Rights over lands, territories and resources, and the principle of free, prior and informed consent where it applies.
Rights to information, participation in decisions and access to justice in environmental matters.
Holders of water, land, fishing or other use rights granted under law or custom.
Utilities, farmers, firms, insurers and investors take operational decisions within public rules: how to manage assets, where to invest, what to insure. Financial-sector understanding of these decisions is built at The Global Risks Alliance (GRA), in Climate and Nature Financial Risk, which does not advise on or arrange transactions.
Climate and Nature Governance brings comparative evidence, options and a neutral setting to the people who decide. It does not take decisions, issue recommendations with binding force, negotiate, or speak for any authority or community.
GRF convenes and governs programmes. It does not regulate, finance, procure or certify, and hosting or sponsorship confers no authority over findings.
Each term as this page uses it. Where a standard-setting body defines the term, the wording follows that body.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Decision rights matrix | A table showing which body proposes, approves, executes and oversees each decision. |
| Competent authority | The body that a law or regulation designates to exercise a given power or duty, such as a supervisor, a civil protection agency or a ministry; only it can take the decisions the law assigns to it. |
| Free, prior and informed consent | The right of Indigenous peoples to give or withhold consent, without coercion, in advance and with full information, to measures that affect their lands, territories and rights, as the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples sets out. |
| Subsidiarity | The principle that a decision is taken at the lowest level able to take it well, with a higher level acting only where the objective cannot be achieved closer to the people concerned; the Treaty on European Union states it. |
The bodies and documents this page is read against. Status and editions change; each link goes to the issuing body.
The current service level is R0: information and enquiries. 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.