Strengthening South-South Collaboration in Earth System Governance
The Earth System Governance (ESG) network’s South-South Initiative (SSI) aims to foster collaboration in underrepresented regions, promote South–South partnerships, and help overcome structural barriers to participation in global knowledge production. By centring perspectives, experiences, and scholarship from the Global South, the SSI seeks to make the ESG community more inclusive, diverse, and analytically robust.
The ESG Project is pleased to announce Assoc. Prof. Varun Mohan as the new Coordinator of the South-South Initiative. Varun is a political scientist and currently an Assistant Professor at the School of Geopolitics and Public Policy, REVA University, Bengaluru, specialising in global environmental governance, climate security, adaptation, and Global South perspectives on sustainability transitions. His research examines how climate and development norms are negotiated, contested, and institutionalised across multilateral institutions, with particular attention to power asymmetries, North–South relations, knowledge production, and questions of justice and legitimacy.
What made you interested in this role?
“My interest in this role stems from a long-standing commitment to strengthening South–South intellectual exchange and ensuring that Global South scholarship is not treated as peripheral, but as analytically generative for global governance debates. I have myself faced challenges in securing funding support to represent my research on global platforms. The SSI offers a rare and valuable platform to centre Southern epistemologies, comparative experiences, and policy-relevant research in ways that can shape the broader Earth System Governance community. I look forward to contributing to making research from the Global South more accessible and visible. In this role, I hope to help consolidate the SSI as a coherent, visible, and intellectually vibrant space.”
