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Topic · Global and Planetary Change

Sustainability and Climate Change Governance

Sustainability and Climate Change Governance is a research topic within Global and Planetary Change. Science Explorer counts 17k research works in it since 1950. 10.1% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores sustainability transitions and resilience in social-ecological systems, focusing on topics such as adaptive governance, climate change adaptation, renewable energy, policy mixes, scenario planning, and transition management. It emphasizes the socio-technical perspective and the need for transformative change to address global environmental challenges.

  • Sustainability Transitions
  • Resilience
  • Social-Ecological Systems
  • Adaptive Governance
  • Climate Change Adaptation
  • Renewable Energy
  • Policy Mixes
  • Scenario Planning
  • Transition Management
  • Socio-Technical Perspective
Research works
17k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
1.7k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.1%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+42%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
21% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Sustainability and Climate Change Governance

Which countries lead Sustainability and Climate Change Governance research?

By volume, the United States and the United Kingdom publish the most (873 and 631 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 873 works
  2. 2 United Kingdom 631 works
  3. 3 Germany 583 works
  4. 4 China 504 works
  5. 5 Netherlands 357 works
  6. 6 Sweden 271 works
  7. 7 Australia 270 works
  8. 8 Italy 238 works
  9. 9 India 230 works
  10. 10 France 206 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 21.0%United Kingdom: 15.1%Germany: 14.0%China: 12.1%6 others listed: 37.8%21%largest
United States873 · 21.0%United Kingdom631 · 15.1%Germany583 · 14.0%China504 · 12.1%6 others listed1,572 · 37.8%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Sustainability and Climate Change Governance research?

By volume in 2022-now, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique publishes the most Sustainability and Climate Change Governance research, followed by Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres and Utrecht University.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 66 works
  2. 2 Helmholtz Association of German Research CentresGermany 61 works
  3. 3 Utrecht UniversityNetherlands 50 works
  4. 4 Wageningen University & ResearchNetherlands 42 works
  5. 5 Lund UniversitySweden 39 works
  6. 6 Delft University of TechnologyNetherlands 39 works
  7. 7 Leibniz AssociationGermany 37 works
  8. 8 Linköping UniversitySweden 33 works
  9. 9 University of HelsinkiFinland 31 works
  10. 10 University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 31 works

Who are the leading researchers in Sustainability and Climate Change Governance?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Sustainability and Climate Change Governance include Philippe Ciais, Joanne E. McKenzie and F. Stuart Chapin.

  1. 1 Philippe Ciais France 237k citations
  2. 2 Joanne E. McKenzie Australia 188k citations
  3. 3 F. Stuart Chapin United States 185k citations
  4. 4 Carl Folke Sweden 182k citations
  5. 5 Sue Brennan Australia 174k citations
  6. 6 Stephen R. Carpenter United States 165k citations
  7. 7 Carlos Manuel Duarte Saudi Arabia 152k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Sustainability and Climate Change Governance?

The most cited paper in Sustainability and Climate Change Governance is "Planetary boundaries: Guiding human development on a changing planet" (Will Steffen, Katherine Anne Koren Richardson, Johan Rockström et al., 2015), with 12,569 citations. Next come "The Shared Socioeconomic Pathways and their energy, land use, and greenhouse gas emissions implications: An overview" (6,791) and "ADAPTIVE GOVERNANCE OF SOCIAL-ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS" (5,728).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Planetary boundaries: Guiding human development on a changing planet Will Steffen, Katherine Anne Koren Richardson, Johan Rockström et al. · Science Open access 15 Jan 2015 12,569
2 The Shared Socioeconomic Pathways and their energy, land use, and greenhouse gas emissions implications: An overview Keywan Riahi et al. · Global Environmental Change Open access 13 Sep 2016 6,791
3 ADAPTIVE GOVERNANCE OF SOCIAL-ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS Carl Folke, Thomas P. Hahn, Per G Olsson et al. · Annual Review of Environment and Resources Review 25 Jul 2005 5,728
4 Resilience Thinking: Integrating Resilience, Adaptability and Transformability Carl Folke, Stephen R. Carpenter, Brian Walker et al. · Ecology and Society Open access 2010 4,722
5 A framework for vulnerability analysis in sustainability science Billie Lee Turner, Roger E. Kasperson, Pamela A. Matson et al. · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Open access 5 Jun 2003 4,379
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Sustainability and Climate Change Governance research done?

The largest centres of Sustainability and Climate Change Governance research in 2022-now are London (United Kingdom), Beijing (China), Stockholm (Sweden) and Paris (France). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Linköping, Wageningen and Brighton.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 LondonUnited Kingdom 140 works
  2. 2 BeijingChina 108 works
  3. 3 StockholmSweden 72 works
  4. 4 ParisFrance 69 works
  5. 5 BerlinGermany 66 works
  6. 6 HelsinkiFinland 63 works
  7. 7 ViennaAustria 63 works
  8. 8 MelbourneAustralia 57 works
  9. 9 Washington D.C.United States 57 works
  10. 10 DelftNetherlands 55 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. LinköpingSE · 34.4 works16×
  2. WageningenNL · 42.5 works16×
  3. BrightonGB · 26.1 works12×
  4. PotsdamDE · 33.5 works11×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Sustainability and Climate Change Governance than the world average.

See Sustainability and Climate Change Governance on the map

Where is the best place to study Sustainability and Climate Change Governance?

Among universities, judged by research, Utrecht University, University of Manchester and University of Sussex score highest, combining citation excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%30%mean 17.15%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →University of Manche…University of SussexUtrecht UniversityLund University
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Citation excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Utrecht UniversityNetherlands 84.418.6%11.4×50 +11.0%
2University of ManchesterUnited Kingdom 77.324.2%4.8×24 +17.3%
3University of SussexUnited Kingdom 73.723.6%16.5×24 -35.0%
4Lund UniversitySweden 69.316.9%11.4×39 -9.7%
5Stockholm UniversitySweden 68.116.5%13.3×27 -10.7%
6Wageningen University & ResearchNetherlands 67.915.7%19.3×42 -20.6%
7Vrije Universiteit AmsterdamNetherlands 66.813.5%9.8×24 +190.5%
8University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 65.216.1%3.7×31 -0.7%
9University of ExeterUnited Kingdom 64.513.6%8.6×22 +20.7%
10Delft University of TechnologyNetherlands 63.612.8%9.5×39 +5.0%

Universities only. The score blends citation excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Sustainability and Climate Change Governance, country by country

Is Sustainability and Climate Change Governance research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 42% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2026. The fastest-growing topics are Sustainability and Climate Change Governance.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Sustainability and Climate Change Governance as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.018% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%Sustainability and Climate Change Governance0.034% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Sustainability and Climate Change Governance over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Sustainability and Climate Change Governance10.1% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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