Policy and governance in a changing sustainability landscape

Climate change is reshaping not only sustainability problems, but also the responses societies pursue. Associate Professor Pedro Fidelman was invited by Trinity College to explore this idea, drawing on research across reef restoration and adaptation, offshore wind, and coastal communities responding to climate and other pressures.

A recurring question across these contexts is how existing policies, regulations, and governance arrangements respond as climate challenges, technologies, and societal responses change. When can existing arrangements adapt? When is governance innovation needed? And what can we learn across climate responses rather than treating every new governance demand as unprecedented?
 
These questions sit within a broader research program on how policy and governance systems respond to emerging sustainability challenges.