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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Showing 1465–1476 of 14677 results

Report

Resilience and Reintegration: Our Stories as Trafficking Survivors

This collection of stories was based on a research project to understand the experiences of reintegration among survivors of trafficking, what they think constitutes successful reintegration, and what they feel would best support them in their reintegration journeys. The research was conducted...

Mina Chiang
Mina Chiang & 3 others

1 January 2022

Opinion

Learning from 2021 to achieve “equity everywhere” in 2022

There is no doubt that as the world tentatively looks towards 2022, we are at a crossroads. We are still in the midst of a global pandemic, with continued uncertainty. The global community will need to draw on local knowledge and evidence in a rapid and engaged way. This sits at the very core of...

Melissa Leach
Melissa Leach & 7 others

27 December 2021

Book

The Politics of Climate Change and Uncertainty in India

This book brings together diverse perspectives concerning uncertainty and climate change in India. Uncertainty is a key factor shaping climate and environmental policy at international, national and local levels. Climate change and events such as cyclones, floods, droughts and changing rainfall...

23 December 2021

Book

The Routledge Handbook of Smuggling

The Routledge Handbook of Smuggling offers a comprehensive survey of interdisciplinary research related to smuggling, reflecting on key themes, and charting current and future trends. The book – which has just been made open access – is divided into six parts and spanning over 30 chapters,...

Florian Weigand

22 December 2021

Opinion

Three challenges for Ethiopia’s renewable energy procurement programme

Developing countries are increasingly using auctions for the procurement of utility-scale renewable electricity. But countries like Ethiopia face institutional and ideological barriers on this pathway to green energy. More than 100 countries have implemented renewable energy auction programmes...

21 December 2021

Journal Article

Enabling Tax Bargaining: Supporting More Meaningful Tax Transparency and Taxpayer Engagement in Ghana and Sierra Leone

Development Policy Review 40.1

While there is increasing evidence that taxation can contribute to greater government responsiveness and accountability, such positive outcomes are not guaranteed. If the environment does not enable tax bargaining, there is a risk that taxation will amount to little more than enforced...

21 December 2021

News

Professor Blessings Chinsinga appointed as Minister of Local Government

A long term research partner and one of the founding members of the Future Agricultures Consortium (FAC), based at the Institute of Development Studies, has been appointed as Minister of Local Government in Malawi. More recently, Professor Blessings Chinsinga has been core to the Agricultural...

20 December 2021

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).