Fit for governing the triple planetary emergency? Towards enabling sustainability transformations at international science-policy interfaces

This doctoral research project contributes to tackling the “Triple Planetary Emergency”, which is triggered by climate change, loss of biodiversity as well as environmental pollution. Science-policy interface institutions, such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), have emerged as key actors of international environmental governance. Considering the insufficient capacity of international environmental law to adapt to the dynamics of human impacts on Earth’s life-support systems, science-policy interfaces can potentially strengthen the feedback loop from knowledge about planetary boundaries to action through policy- and lawmaking. In this context, the project engages in re-thinking interactions between science, policy and law. It analyzes the role and capacities of the IPCC and the IPBES in the architecture of global environmental governance. The project aims to identify successes and shortcomings of the IPCC and the IPBES to govern modern wicked problems, based on governance theories that embrace complexity. The methodology applied emerges from several disciplines such as sustainability science, international relations, and international law. The findings are geared towards informing the set-up of a new international science-policy body which will address environmental pollution.