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Research Centre Utrecht

About the Research Centre

The Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development is a world-leading research centre for sustainability research and teaching, based at the Faculty of Geosciences at Utrecht University, The Netherlands. The Institute hosts numerous fellows, senior fellows and lead faculty members of the Earth System Governance Project. At the Copernicus Institute, most research on earth system governance is carried out by the Environmental Governance group. However, given the interdisciplinary character of most research at the Institute, the Environmental Governance team maintains close links to all other groups and individuals in the Institute. Read more about the Research Centre Utrecht.

Recent publications

Building Capabilities for Earth System Governance

This Element develops a new Strategic Capabilities Framework for studying and steering complex socio-ecological systems. It is driven by the…

Trade and the Environment: Drivers and Effects of Environmental Provisions in Trade Agreements

The mushrooming of trade agreements and their interlinkages with environmental governance calls for new research on the trade and environment…

The Politics of Deep Time

Human societies increasingly interact with processes on a geological or even cosmic timescale. Despite this recognition, we still lack a…

A Green and Just Recovery from COVID-19?: Government Investment in the Energy Transition during the Pandemic

Stimulus spending to address the economic crisis brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to either facilitate the…