The Global Risks Forum (GRF)
Climate and nature governance is the study and practice of how societies organize authority, resources and accountability to reduce climate risk, adapt to change and protect the ecosystems they depend on. This page defines the field, explains why it matters, sets out the institutional issues experts examine and shows how governance connects to the science and finance of the same systems.
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The Climate and Nature Governance field covers institutions and policy frameworks responsible for climate, adaptation, nature and transboundary environmental priorities. Experts in it study questions such as adaptation institutions and climate risk governance, with methods such as climate and atmospheric science as well as ecology and biodiversity science. Its counterparts at GCRI and GRA look at the same systems through science and finance.
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.
Treaties and conventions on climate, biodiversity, wetlands, shared waters and the sea, with their implementing bodies.
Framework laws, ministries, environmental agencies, planning systems and budgets.
Municipal authorities, customary institutions and community stewardship of land, forests and fisheries.
The field draws on policy, institutional and decision science, comparative law, public administration and political economy, and it relies on climate and atmospheric science, ecology and biodiversity science, hydrology and water science and agricultural, soil and food science for an accurate account of the systems being governed. Its core subject is institutions: the formal rules, organizations and informal norms that decide who may act, who must act and who answers for results.
Climate and nature governance is polycentric. Authority is spread across international agreements, national ministries, regional bodies, municipalities, customary authorities, courts and private actors. That spread brings redundancy and local knowledge, and it also brings gaps, overlaps and conflicts.
Who is responsible, and how do agencies work together? See Adaptation institutions and Climate risk governance.
How do legal frameworks protect nature and govern commons? See Nature and biodiversity law and Land and ocean governance.
How are shared waters and food systems governed? See River basin governance and Water and food governance.
Who bears costs and who can hold decision-makers to account? See Climate justice and equity and Climate disclosure governance.
Why do strategies fail to become practice? See Implementation gaps.
Each term as this page uses it. Where a standard-setting body defines the term, the wording follows that body.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Climate framework law | A national law that sets the long-term direction of climate policy, often with targets, carbon budgets, reporting duties and an independent advisory body. |
| Procedural environmental rights | Rights of access to information, participation in decisions and access to justice in environmental matters, set out in the Aarhus Convention and the Escazú Agreement. |
| Implementation gap | The difference between what a policy intended and what was delivered. |
| Systemic risk | Risk arising from interconnections, where failure in one part can cascade through a whole system. |
The science of these systems is done at The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI), in platforms such as Water Nexus, Climate and Hazards and Biodiversity Nexus. Their financial dimensions are studied at The Global Risks Alliance (GRA), in Climate and Nature Financial Risk. The decision-rights context sets out who decides what.
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.