2016 Nairobi Conference on Earth System Governance: ‘Confronting Complexity and Inequality’

The 2016 Nairobi Conference on Earth System Governance addressed the overarching theme of ‘Confronting Complexity and Inequality’ in Nairobi, the ‘Green City in the Sun’ that is not only one of East Africa’s major centres but also home to the United Nations Environment Programme and a number of leading public and non-state organisations in the field of sustainable development. 

In this central hub of global environmental governance, the 2016 Earth System Governance conference focused on the persistent question of how we can manage the increasing complexity of institutions, actors, interests and discourses in a just and effective manner. In analysing this central question, the conference placed special emphasis on global and national inequalities, for instance by analysing local inequalities in sustainable development policies and by asking to what extent traditional divisions between North and South are still relevant in earth system governance or whether new divides, and goal conflicts, exist that deserve our attention. At the 2016 Nairobi Conference on Earth System Governance, we placed particular emphasis on Africa, inviting papers that address the continent’s potential for, but also the challenges to, sustainable development. For all of these questions, the Nairobi Conference was designed to provide a lively forum to hundreds of scholars for joint discussions, the exchange of new insights, and the examination of the core ideas that underlie earth system governance and global sustainability.

Conference Streams

1. Complexity in Earth System Governance
2. Inequality in Earth System Governance
3. Africa and Earth System Governance
4. New Directions in Earth System Governance Research