Organised by the International Environmental Governance Architecture Research Group and the Earth System Governance Project, in collaboration with the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) and United Nations University Institute for Advanced Studies (UNU-IAS), and supported by the Japan Foundation Centre for Global Partnership.
One of the two issues to be addressed at 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development, also known as Rio+20, is the Institutional Framework for Sustainable Development (IFSD). As preparations for Rio+20 proceed, it reveals that there is a substantial gap between what is needed on the ground and what is discussed in the multilateral negotiation process. There is a clear need for fundamental governance transformation.
Using a World Café dialogue format, this workshop will address the key issues required for such a fundamental transformation of international environmental governance in the 21st century.
The workshop’s overall objective is to articulate a vision and a blue print for local to global governance system to achieve sustainable development and to come up with proposals, and a further research agenda to be explored by the earth system governance research community. The workshop will not focus on incremental reform options, but will rather project a scientific vision for an institutional framework for sustainability and earth system governance that has a global, effective architecture, that can adapt to changing circumstances, that involves civil society, that is accountable and legitimate beyond the nation state and that is fair for everyone.
The workshop will bring together approximately 15 to 20 experts from the earth system governance scientific community and policymakers. We have among others the support of the team leader Institutional Framework for Sustainable Development within the UN Secretariat’s team that prepares for the Rio+20 Conference.
The workshop is part of the initiative by the Earth System Governance Project on International Environmental Governance and the Institutional Framework for sustainable development. For more information about this initiative see www.ieg.earthsystemgovernance.org
The outcome of this workshop, chaired by prof Norichika Kanie, will be made available at www.earthsystemgovernance.org and will complement the portfolio of products that the Earth System Governance Project will produce to support the process leading to the Rio+20 Conference which centres around the policy assessment on the institutional framework for sustainable development (see www.ieg.earthsystemgovernance.org).
