This conference is part of a global series organized by the Earth System Governance Project.
The first Earth System Governance conference was held in Amsterdam in December 2009 and the second in Fort Collins in May 2011.

Confirmed speakers include:
John Dryzek, Australian National University
Robyn Eckersley, University of Melbourne (TBC)
Frank Fischer, Rutgers University
Tim Forsyth, London School of Economics and Political Science
 Maarten Hajer, University of Amsterdam
Margaret C. Lee, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Rolf Lidskog, Örebro University
Morten Ougaard, Copenhagen Business School
Timmons Roberts, Brown University
Jan Aart Scholte, Warwick University
Joni Seager, Bentley University
Jens Steffek, Technische Universität Darmstadt
Hayley Stevenson, Sheffield University

Background

The Earth System Governance Project, a ten-year research programme under the auspices of the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP), was launched in 2009 to address the problems of environmental governance. In this project earth system governance is defined as the interrelated system of formal and informal rules, rule-making mechanisms, and actor-networks at all levels of human society (from local to global) that are all set up to steer societies towards preventing, mitigating, and adapting to global and local environmental change and earth system transformation, within the normative context of sustainable development.

The Earth System Governance Project’s Science Plan is organized around five analytical problems. Architecture relates to the emergence, design and effectiveness of governance arrangements. Agency addresses questions of who governs the earth system and how. Adaptiveness explores the ability of governance systems to change in the face of new knowledge and challenges as well as to enhance adaptiveness of social-ecological systems in the face of major disturbances. Accountability refers to the democratic quality of environmental governance arrangements. Finally, the theme of Allocation & Access addresses questions of justice, equity, and fairness.

The Lund Conference on Earth System Governance will address all of these five analytical problems. The conference will particularly focus on research on accountability and legitimacy, and on allocation and access and will critically examine questions of justice, democracy, legitimacy and accountability in research and practice.