Sustainability and Risk Governance: Exploring and Developing Sustainable Solutions for Complex and Wicked Problems

Dear Colleagues,

Sustainability and risk governance are both terms that have been frequently used in comments and policy briefs but there is little clarity about the meaning of the two terms and, in particular, about the relationship between the two terms when it comes to policy advice of how to manage risks with sustainable development in mind. It is therefore useful to review the connections between the two concepts and highlight the opportunities of how these two concepts may offer guidance to political, economic and social actors as a means to respond to present and future crises. Risk governance refers to the regulation and management of risks, in particular systemic risks that are characterized by high complexity, transboundary effects, stochastic relationships, and nonlinear cause–effect patterns with tipping points. Systemic risks range from natural hazards, environmental threats, pandemics and financial crisis to cybersecurity. Their negative effects are often pervasive, impacting fields beyond the obvious primary areas of harm. Due to their special features, systemic risks require more than the usual methods of operational risk management. They pose unresolved challenges for policy making and risk governance.

Risk governance focuses on two major aspects: risk agents (energy, substance, biota, information, money, violence) and risk absorbing systems (persons, societies, eco-systems, assets, etc.). The risk governance perspective highlights the interactions between risk agents and risk-absorbing systems and favors interdisciplinary, cross-sectoral (overcoming silos), dynamic (hazard flow chain) and multiperspective, multiagent modeling approaches. Similarly, sustainability research is focused on dealing simultaneously with interacting transformations (such as globalization, digitalization and sustainabilization), provides integrative perspectives on the interplay between technological changes, institutional arrangements and social behavior and requires multicriteria analysis for designing or evaluating policies towards improved sustainability. Thus, both terms have much in common. However, while risk governance is merely focused on reducing risks, sustainability is broader in its scope of goals. The overall objective is the continuation of humane living conditions for present and future generations (within a co-evolution of social and natural systems).

Sustainability adds purpose to risk governance. It should be directed towards creating or maintaining humane living conditions. These include respecting the boundaries of natural ecosystems and resources, meeting the basic needs of all human beings, and ensuring peaceful means of conflict resolution.

This special issue will address the complementary but also potentially adversarial relationships between risk governance and sustainability. Papers that investigate the conceptual roots and implications of these two terms are welcomed as are papers that provide empirical evidence for merits, pitfalls and problems associated with this combination. In addition, normative papers that prescribe potential governance models that are both related to risk reductions and sustainability improvements are highly appreciated.

References:

1. Bai, X.; Van Der Leeuw, S.; O’Brien, K.; Berkhout, F.; Biermann, F.; Brondizio, E.S.; Cudennec, C.; Dearing, J.; Duraiappah, A.; Glaser, M.; et al. Plausible and desirable futures in the Anthropocene: A new research agenda. Glob. Environ. Chang. 2016, 39, 351–362, doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2015.09.017.
2. Helbing, D. Globally networked risks and how to respond. Nat. 2013, 497, 51–59, doi:10.1038/nature12047.
3. International Risk Governance Council. 2018. IRGC Guidelines for the Governance of Systemic Risks. In systems and organisations in the context of transitions. Available online: www.irgc.org
4. Renn, O. Systemic Risks: Intersections between Science and Society with Policy Implications for Sustainability. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Nat. Resour. 2020, 23, 44–48, doi:10.19080/ijesnr.2020.23.556107.
5. OECD Emerging Risks in the 21st Century. Emerging Risks in the 21st Century 2003.
6. Renn, O. Risk Governance: Coping with Uncertainty in a Complex World (Earthscan Risk in Society). Routledge: Abingdon, UK.
7. Renn, O.; Jäger, A.; Deuschle, J.; Jehle, W.W. A normative-functional concept of sustainability and its indicators. Int. J. Glob. Environ. Issues 2009, 9, 291, doi:10.1504/ijgenvi.2009.027260.
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10. Schweizer, P.-J. Systemic risks – concepts and challenges for risk governance. J. Risk Res. 2019, 1–16, doi:10.1080/13669877.2019.1687574.
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12. van der Leeuw, S. Social sustainability, past and future. Undoing unintended consequences for the earth’s survival. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, MA, USA, 2020
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Prof. Dr. Ortwin Renn
Dr. Pia-Johanna Schweizer
Guest Editors

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• risk governance
• systemic risks
• sustainability
• science advice for policy-making