Welcome to the Program on Governance for Sustainable Development
The Program on Governance for Sustainable Development brings together scholars and practitioners to explore the role of institutions in addressing the challenges of sustainable development. It seeks to understand the role of governance in world affairs, with a focus on the institutions that manage the complex interdependencies within our societies and economies, and between these human systems and natural systems.
Activities
The Program promotes:
- Basic and applied Research on specific problems of governance to build intellectual capital about the effectiveness of governance in a variety of settings
- Teaching of future leaders through graduate courses and the supervision of students and fellows at the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California, Santa Barbara
- Events such as conferences, seminars and workshops that enhance collaboration between researchers, policy-makers and practitioners
- Publications that stimulate discussion and disseminate knowledge on governance for sustainable development
The Program is collaborating with a range of partners to create a network on governance for sustainable development to support research dialogue and governance reform.
Location
The Program on Governance for Sustainable Development is a program of the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science & Management. The Bren School offers highly competitive masters and Ph.D. programs in environmental science and management. With an emphasis on science, management, law and policy, the Bren School provides cutting-edge, interdisciplinary training and access to other acclaimed departments on the UCSB campus.
Ranked as one of the world's best research universities, the University of California at Santa Barbara is an internationally renowned center for teaching and research. Distinguished for its interdisciplinary programs and commitment to excellence and innovation, it has been ranked second in the top 10 U.S. public research universities (Graham and Diamond, 1997), and has received a range of awards and distinctions.
Program Location: The Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California at Santa Barbara.
News
Climate Briefing Note on Black Carbon (IGSD/INECE, 18 July 2008)
Black Carbon Is Potent Climate Forcing Agent and Ideal Target for Climate Mitigation
Emissions of black carbon (BC) may be the second largest contributor to global warming after carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, and reducing these emissions may be the fastest strategy for slowing climate change in the near-term, buying policymakers time to address CO2 emissions in the middle and long-term. - More
Climate Briefing Note on Biochar (IGSD/INECE, 18 July 2008)
Biochar has the Potential to be an Efficient Carbon Sink While Providing
Numerous Co-Benefits
Turning biomass into "biochar" (also known as "agri-char") can store massive amounts of carbon in soils on a time scale of hundreds to thousands of years. This high-carbon, fine-grained residue can be produced either by smoldering biomass utilizing centuries-old techniques (i.e., covering burning biomass with soil and letting it smolder) or through modern pyrolysis processes. - More
Major Economies Promote Montreal Protocol, Fast Action on Climate
(IGSD Press Release, 11 July 2008)
Speed matters for successfully managing the transition to a low-carbon future. We need to start now with immediate mitigation to learn what works best to limit climate emissions and enhance sinks, and to build confi dence to strengthen efforts in the future. Immediate mitigation also is essential for getting ahead of accelerating climate feedbacks by quickly reducing greenhouse gas concentrations from the current 385 ppm (growing fast at 2 ppm/year) to a safe level – perhaps as low as 350 ppm. - More
Fast and Furious: Early Agreement on Fair and Equitable Financing is Key to Post-2012 Treaty”
by Romina Picolotti, Minister of Environment, Argentina
The challenge of climate change is a race towards the climate-safe future. We must run to reach the fi nish line. Accelerating feedbacks hold us back, threatening us with irreversible climate change, including the collapse of the Antarctic ice shelf and disintegration of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Other factors, however, propel us forward towards a clean-energy, climate-friendly future. Sound law, encompassed in a clear and visionary international regulatory framework can take us far, fast.- More
Major Strengthened Ozone Treaty Provides Five Times Kyoto Treaty in Climate Mitigation
Montreal, 22 September 2007. The 191 Parties to the Montreal Protocol reached a historic agreement late last night to strengthen the ozone treaty to address reducing greenhouse gas emissions by up to 25billion tons of CO2 equivalent—five times more than the Kyoto Protocol will do during its initial reduction period (2008-2012). - More
Sustainability Network established
An outcome of the Workshop on Governance for Sustainable Development (GSD) was the creation of the Network on Governance for Sustainable Development. - More
United Nations Climate Change Conference
Nairobi, 6 - 17 November 2006 INECE Side Event - Report by GSD Program and INECE Director, Durwood Zaelke November 16, 2006, NAIROBI, KENYA. - More