Toward Communion: Institutional Innovation for Bridging the Human-Nature “Dichotomy”
The “dichotomy” between humans and nature was always a fiction. A useful one for some economic accounting – reinforcing a license to extract and plumping up productivity numbers by ignoring essential inputs. A distracting one in other ways – a false sense of insulation from the vagaries of storms, floods, nutrient cycles, and other feedback […]
Transforming National Energy Systems: Pioneering Institutional Models
The Power Transition Challenge Energy systems are among the most complex and critical infrastructures in modern societies. Their transformation requires coordinated change across technological, economic, social, and political dimensions. Yet traditional governance approaches—focused on regulation rather than active system transformation—often prove inadequate for managing such multifaceted transitions. As climate change accelerates and energy security concerns […]
Beyond the Nature-Human Dichotomy: Governance for a Living Planet
For centuries, institutions have operated on the assumption that nature is a backdrop to human progress: an extractable resource rather than a co-governor of shared futures. This separation has fueled systemic insecurity through ecological collapse and resource conflicts. However, a new paradigm is emerging. One that recognizes ecosystems as active participants in governance, rather than […]
Mobilising the collective intelligence of nature — Internet of animals
In recent decades, new global institutions have emerged to orchestrate data and knowledge, continuing a long history of efforts to structure and coordinate information. The IPCC does this for climate change; IPBES does it for biodiversity and others are working in fields ranging from health to education. Traditional institutions have yet to integrate the intelligence […]
The Climate Convergence: Extreme Heat as a Catalyst for Cross-Sector Innovation
As heatwaves grow more severe, they are having severe impacts in terms of mortality, disruption of daily life, and deepening inequalities. Unlike other climate-related disasters such as hurricanes or floods, extreme heat is an invisible crisis that intersects with multiple areas like urban planning, transportation, public health, and energy systems. Thus, traditional institutional response mechanisms […]
