Sustainability

Our interdisciplinary research explores how pathways to sustainability, green transformations and equitable access to resources such as land, water and food can be achieved and help us meet the environmental as well as human development-related goals of the UN Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development.

Our work builds on a long tradition of critical social science engagement with environmental issues and resource politics in collaboration with partners globally. It explores how pathways to sustainability are shaped by political-economic and social processes, and understands how they are driven by technology, markets, states and citizens.  Our research sheds new light on how we can achieve green transformations that move us from fossil fuel to renewable energy, from throw-away to circular economies. It addresses the politics of sustainability, and understands how transformations occur at local levels as well as global, in both rural and urban settings, and be led by citizens as well as national governments. In doing so, it shines a light on how sustainable resource use, consumption and production is shaped by issues such as gender, livelihoods and politics.

People

Lyla Mehta

Professorial Fellow

Ian Scoones

Professorial Fellow

Amber Huff

Resource Politics and Environmental Change Cluster Lead

Jeremy Allouche

Professorial Fellow

Lars Otto Naess

Resource Politics and Environmental Change Cluster Lead

Wei Shen

Research Fellow

Shilpi Srivastava

Research Fellow

Programmes and centres

Recent work

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Past Event

What are the priorities for realising SDG 6.2 in Ghana?

How are we doing on SDG-6 to ensure safely managed sanitation for all in Ghana? Where is progress being made, and how is this being achieved? What challenges remain? How can we accelerate efforts and reach those most in need? This webinar brings together academics, policy actors and...

20 January 2022

Report

K4D’s Work Around Climate Change and Related Issues

K4D Helpdesk Report

This report provides an illustrative overview of the Knowledge, Evidence and Learning for Development (K4D) programme's work from October 2016 until May 2021 connected to climate change. Given the breadth of K4D reports that touch on climate change (or related issues), this report has taken a...

19 January 2022

News

Scientists call for International Non-Use Agreement on Solar Geoengineering

A global coalition of over 60 senior climate scientists and governance scholars have launched a global initiative calling for an International Non-Use Agreement on Solar Geoengineering. They argue that deployment of solar geoengineering - speculative technologies that aim to lower global...

18 January 2022

Opinion

Will Covid-19 reshape development finance in the coming years?

18 January 2022

News

Knowledge, Evidence and Learning for Development (K4D) in 2021

2021 was a standout year for the Knowledge, Evidence and Learning for Development Programme (K4D). In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, cuts to Overseas Development Aid, and other challenges, K4D published its 1,000th Helpdesk Report, facilitated its 40th Learning Journey, received 237,600...

17 January 2022

Opinion

The most important questions in choosing postgraduate studies

The past two years have seen Covid-19 reshape how we live and work, but also how we learn. While the level of interest in postgraduate studies remains high, the pandemic has changed how prospective students, including those in development studies, decide where to study. The latest Future Masters...

17 January 2022

News

Between the Lines podcast – Split Waters: The Idea of Water Conflicts

In the new episode of the IDS podcast Between the Lines, IDS Research Fellow Lyla Mehta interviews Luisa Cortesi and K. J. Joy, editors of the book Split Waters: The Idea of Water Conflicts. This book features a fascinating collection of essays that consider the idea of water conflict and how...

14 January 2022

Why learn with us.

In an extraordinary time of challenge and change, we use more than 50 years of expertise to transform development approaches that create more equitable and sustainable futures. The work you do with us will help make progressive change towards universal development; to build and connect solidarities for collective action, locally and globally. The University of Sussex has been ranked 1st in the world for Development Studies for the past five years (QS World University Rankings by Subject).