In recent years, it has become clear that human-induced climate change will pose a major challenge to the  world in this century. To meet this challenge, we need significant changes in human behaviour and in local and global policies for mitigating global warming and adapting to climate change. Climate governance is concerned with these social and political changes. In the past, environmental policy was mostly seen as a task of national states, but the arena of climate change action has become much more diverse. Forerunners among multinational companies have started taking initiatives which, for instance in the USA, go far beyond state regulations. Environmental NGOs and development organizations take part in climate negotiations and mobilize other state and non-state actors. Active cooperation of companies and consumers is a precondition for the successful formulation and implementation of environmental measures.

Under the heading of climate governance, social scientists study these dynamic processes where activities on different levels and of different actors mutually influence each other. Topics investigated include, among others, the following ones. Formation of international policy regimes, such as the UN Framework Convention for Climate Change: which powers are in play, and how can regimes become effective? Interaction of science and policy: how much policy is there in science, and how much science in policy? Risk and uncertainty: how to deal with high degrees of uncertainty in formulating and communicating policies? Public perceptions of climate change: what are feasible strategies for education and participation of citizens and consumers? Climate change and development: many developing countries that hardly contribute to climate change are most severely threatened by its impacts. How to adjust this unfair balance of responsibility and vulnerability? Companies and climate change: how do companies take up the challenge of climate change and what does that mean for their relations with business partners and consumers?

For more than a century, environmental organizations have been active for the conservation of nature and natural resources. With the Convention on Biological Diversity, signed in Rio de Janeiro 1992, these efforts have got a new and global impulse. Nature conservation-oriented NGOs, such as WWF, have successfully operated on national and international scales and have effectively promoted the designation of protected areas in every region of the world. At a closer look, however, it becomes apparent that the protection of nature is tied up with deep conflicts. In rural areas of developing countries, the establishment of nature reserves often deprives local communities of natural resources that are vital to their livelihood. Under conditions of poverty and land degradation, long-term protection of nature is far from guaranteed. More and more, nature conservation organizations and government agencies are searching for ways to combine conservation and community development. In highly industrialized countries, nature conservation is under pressure too. Here, urbanization, infrastructure, pollution and recreation intensity pose a serious threat to the remaining patches of nature. In conflicts between economic development and nature conservation, the latter is often overruled. Nature protection organizations search for ways of strengthening public support for nature and engaging companies and farmers in protection activities.

Social science research on natural resource management and biodiversity aims at understanding and improving these social and political relationships between nature conservation, rural development, and urbanization and industrialization. Prominent topics are, among others: political and socio-economic participation of local communities in conservation; trends and patterns in public support for nature and biodiversity; interaction of ecological science and politics in the formation of nature policies; innovate forms of biodiversity policy and management, and involvement of companies and consumers in nature protection.  

Every human being needs food everyday and food is therefore one of the most direct links between society and nature. Human health, ecosystems, and food processing are closely connected, but these relationships are no longer the same as in the past. Where our food is produced, which farming and processing methods are applied, and how it is traded is changing rapidly. Increasingly people become concerned about these changes; about presence of chemicals in their food and about the use of particular farming and industrial methods. For many years people have engaged in attempts to increase the sustainability of their food, but it seems the issue has recently become even more urgent through globalization and technological innovation. So, people ask how to reduce the negative impacts of pesticides’ use in agriculture and to increase the safety of food? What risks are posed by innovative technologies such as genetic modification (GM) and nanotechnologies? Under what conditions private labels such as organics or Fairtrade can offer an alternative to official regulation? Can we trust the information we read on the product-labels in the supermarkets? What roles can and do governments, farmers, supermarkets, consumers and NGOs play in increasing the sustainability of food?

These are some of the questions that emerge when studying the governance of food. Identifying potential governance arrangements contributing to more sustainable food provision needs to be done by applying a broad perspective as changes in Western food production and consumption are closely connected with changes in other parts of the world.

To a considerable extent, environmental policy and governance has its roots in the regulation of industrial emissions to water, air and soil. The first wave of environmental policy making, starting in the 1960s, consisted mostly of laws and regulations to combat pollution to air, water or soil. It resulted in end-of-pipe filters and treatment facilities at the level of single factories. The implementation of economic instruments as well as a target group approach has later on resulted in process integrated measures, cleaner production, and pollution prevention at industrial sector level. The most recent stage in the greening of industry, as a result of ongoing globalization, has led to various wide ranging modes of governance towards industrial production and consumption. We are now talking about industrial chain management, industrial ecology, international certification systems like ISO 14001, and cradle-to-cradle principles. Governing the greening of industry now involves state and non-state actors from local to global levels managing energy and substance flows from resource extraction up to processing and final consumption. 

Questions that emerge when studying the very complex and challenging governance of the greening of industry are: What kind of governance arrangement are necessary to reduce the impact from industrial activities on the global environment? Who should be involved: the state, industry actors, civil society? And what kind of governance arrangements have been developed so far? How do they look like and how do they work? Are they being effective and why? And how do these governance arrangements deal with the globalization of politics and economy?

Captured under the headings consumption and production we find a variety of processes that contribute significantly to the environmental problems that we face today. For many years, environmental policies targeted either production (through permits, command-and-control regulation) or consumption (mainly though mass-education campaigns). Nowadays, it is increasingly recognized that we should target consumption and production in conjunction if a transition towards sustainable production and consumption is to be realized. A variety of instruments is nowadays employed to move consumers and producers towards sustainability, both at the local level, national, and global level.

 Environmental governance studies analyze these dynamics from a sociological and/or political science perspective. Such studies can focus for example on the development, employment and effectiveness of instruments such as eco-labeling, can analyze how changes in policy and governance affect the distribution of responsibility between different actors, or can aim to formulate policy-recommendations for the further improvement of sustainable consumption and production policy.

The oceans and seas cover 75% of our Earth’s surface and the marine environment is vital for human existence. The services that the oceans and seas provide us are manifold. The ocean and seas are used to transport goods (shipping), to feed us (fishing and aquaculture), to provide us with fossil fuel and renewable energy (gas and oil extraction, offshore windmill farms) and to let us recreate (swimming, surfing, sailing). All these activities have adverse effects on the marine environment in the form of discharges to the marine environment and disturbance and damage of marine ecosystems and habitats. There is thus a need to protect the marine environment from the increasing burden caused by human activities.

Questions that emerge when studying the very complex and challenging governance of the marine environment are: how should we protect the marine environment? What kind of governance arrangement are necessary to reduce the impact from human activities on the marine environment? Who should be involved: the state, the market, civil society? And should this be done on the global level, the regional level, the national level or the local level? And what kind of governance arrangements have been developed so far? How do they look like and how do they work? Are they effective and why? Who is involved? And how do these governance arrangements deal with the globalization of politics and economy? To what extent are these governance arrangements linked to each other? Do they overlap? Is there a need to integrate them? And how could that be achieved?