Governance, Policy, Law & Justice

We are in the midst of unprecedented global environmental crises – climate disruption, biodiversity loss, emerging pandemics, and pervasive pollution – that need to be urgently addressed. Recognizing the concurrent challenges of poverty and inequality, it is clear that transformative changes are required to tackle these crises in an equitable and just manner. 

IRES researchers are identifying laws, policies, decision making practices, and institutions that either inhibit, facilitate, or accelerate progress towards a more equitable and sustainable future. This can include anything from new regulations or policies at various levels of governance, to designing more effective and inclusive institutions, to informal norms and practices that might increase human wellbeing while reducing socio-ecological harms.

Core faculty:

David Boyd, Leila Harris, Amanda Giang, Gunilla Öberg, Hadi Dowlatabadi, Milind Kandlikar, Terre Satterfield, Kai Chan, Hannah Wittman

Highlighted publications:

• Boyd, D. R. (2011). The environmental rights revolution: a global study of constitutions, human rights, and the environment. UBC Press.
• K. McFarlane, L. Harris (2018) Small systems, big challenges: Review of small drinking water system governance. Environmental Reviews
• Stokes, L. C., Giang, A., & Selin, N. E. (2016). Splitting the south: China and India’s divergence in international environmental negotiations. Global Environmental Politics, 16(4), 12-31.
• Oberg, G., & Mason-Renton, S. A. (2018). On the limitation of evidence-based policy: Regulatory narratives and land application of biosolids/sewage sludge in BC, Canada and Sweden. Environmental Science & Policy, 84, 88-96.
• Klinsky, S., & Dowlatabadi, H. (2009). Conceptualizations of justice in climate policy. Climate Policy, 9(1), 88-108.
• Harding, S., Kandlikar, M., & Gulati, S. (2016). Taxi apps, regulation, and the market for taxi journeys. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 88, 15-25