BEYOND THE CLIMATE–NATURE NEXUS: RETHINKING INTEGRATED ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE FOR HUMAN WELL-BEING IN A CHANGING WORLD

Abstract

Conventional environmental governance has been found to have significant weaknesses due to the convergence of climate change, biodiversity loss, ecosystem degradation, pollution, resource insecurity, and social vulnerability. The climate–nature nexus has increased understanding of the interdependencies of nature, but hasn't yet fostered a focus on the larger systems that drive environmental change and their impacts on human health, livelihoods, food and water security, economic stability, and social equity. This paper critically reviews the concept of the climate–nature nexus and proposes a framework for environmental governance that goes beyond these two perspectives to focus on human well-being and socio-ecological resilience. It shows how environmental risks are increasingly taking different interconnected pathways, but governance mechanisms remain diffuse across climate, biodiversity, water, agriculture, energy, health, and development. The factors of institutional fragmentation, policy trade-offs, transboundary environmental risks, weak accountability, unequal vulnerability, and the lack of participation in the environmental decision-making process are given special consideration. The analysis also considers ways to enhance governance capacity through adaptive governance, ecosystem-based approaches, NbS, digital-technology-enabled environmental monitoring, just transition, and multi-level participation. Integrated approaches that tackle the challenge of flood risk alongside ecosystem restoration, water security, disaster preparedness, public health, and urban environmental pressures are integrated across different experiences shared with the Netherlands, Costa Rica, Singapore, Bangladesh, and London. The paper maintains that environmental governance should not be judged solely on the basis of emissions reductions or conservation outcomes, but on its ability to preserve ecological integrity and provide health, livelihood security, resilience, and social justice