Publications
2026
Publications by CLIFF
The human right to a safe climate
Sebastian Villasante, Lynne Shannon, Sandra Waddock, Lucas A. Garibaldi, Nathan J. Bennett, Joyeeta Gupta, David Obura, Albert V. Norström, Karen O’Brien, Unai Pascual & Arun Agrawal
Nature Sustainability
The advisory opinions by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2025 mark a turning point…
Publications related to CLIFF
Water justice: evolving perspectives and dilemmas
Hilmer J. Bosch, Joyeeta Gupta, Luc van Vliet, Andrea B. Müller
International Journal of Water Resources Development
This review paper asks: What does the water justice literature reveal about the core elements of water justice in terms of content and at different…
2025
Publications by CLIFF
Orchestrating the narrative: The role of fossil fuel companies in delaying the energy transition
Giulia Gentile, Joyeeta Gupta
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews
The scientific community has long identified the urgent need to phase out fossil fuels. Yet, fossil fuel companies have managed to avoid accountability…
Science-policy: UNFCCC policymakers’ perspective of scientific scenarios and their policy relevance
Jiesper Tristan Strandsbjerg Pedersen, Carla Gomes, Patrick O’Rourke, Detlef van Vuuren, Joyeeta Gupta, Filipe Duarte Santos & Rob Swart
NPJ Climate Action
Scenarios play a pivotal role in linking climate science to policy action, informing the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change…
Just Energy Transition Partnerships: An inclusive climate finance approach?
Aljoscha Karg, Joyeeta Gupta,
Yang Chen
Energy Research & Social Science
The Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETPs) – between G-7+ countries and South Africa (2021), Indonesia (2022), Viet Nam (2022), and Senegal…
Neo-colonialism and leaving fossil fuels underground: a discourse analysis of the potential German-Senegalese gas partnership
Luc van Vliet, Janina Herzog-Hawelka, Clara McDonnell
Energy Research & Social Science
This paper explores the contested discourses surrounding a potential gas partnership between Germany and Senegal, highlighting the…
Climate Injustices Have Multiplied over Time: The Need for Climate System Justice
Joyeeta Gupta, Yang Chen, Clara McDonnell, Augusto Heras, Janina Herzog-Hawelka, Frank de Morrée, Opal Morales Asencio
Progress in Development Studies
This article asks: How have climate injustices accumulated in climate negotiations, and how can a climate system justice approach be developed? It concludes that, first, without a just approach…
Reconciling the right to develop with leaving fossil fuels underground in the Global South
Augusto Heras, Crelis F. Rammelt, Joyeeta Gupta
Environmental Science & Policy
To address climate change, supply-side action and policy are urgently needed for leaving fossil fuels underground. Low- and Middle-Income…
Data injustice and attribution of drought events: implications for global climate policy
Paola Fezzigna, Marthe Wens, Joyeeta Gupta, Paolo Scussolini
Climate Policy
Extreme event attribution (EEA) studies address the question of the role of anthropogenic climate change in the occurrence of extreme weather…
North-south relations, responsibilities, and agendas in Earth System Governance: Have these changed in the Anthropocene?
Augusto Heras, Joyeeta Gupta
Earth System Governance
On the G77’s 60th anniversary and the 50th anniversary of the Declaration for a New International Economic Order, this paper explores…
Thresholds of significant harm at global level: The journey of the Earth Commission
Joyeeta Gupta, Jesse F. Abrams, David Armstrong McKay, Xuemei Bai, Kristi L. Ebi, Paola Fezzigna, Giuliana Gentile, Lauren Gifford, Syezlin Hasan, Lisa Jacobson, Aljoscha Karg*, Steven Lade, Tim Lenton, Diana Liverman, Awaz Mohamed, Nebojsa Nakicenovic, David Obura, Johan Rockström, Ben Stewart-Koster, Detlef van VuurenPeter Verburg, Raimon C. Ylla-Català, Caroline Zimm
Earth System Governance
The planetary boundary framework proposes ‘safe’ boundaries, but these boundaries are not necessarily ‘just’. Hence, we ask: How has the…
Publications related to CLIFF
Water security reframed using Water System Justice and Earth system boundaries, foundations, and corridor
Joyeeta Gupta, Hilmer J. Bosch, Luc van Vliet
Frontiers in Water
In the Anthropocene, when human activity, including the overuse and over-pollution of water, is leading to the destabilization of the global…
Connecting planetary boundaries and planetary health: a resilient and stable Earth system is crucial for human health
Samuel S. Myers, Oskar Masztalerz, Samantha Ahdoot, Sabine Gabrysch, Joyeeta Gupta, Andy Haines, Henrika Kleineberg-Massuthe, Nathalie J. Lambrecht, Philip J. Landrigan, Jemilah Mahmood, Lisa M. Pörtner, Jason Rohr, Claudia Traidl-Hoffmann, Amanda S. Wendt, Britt Wray, Johan Rockström
The Lancet
Earth system scientists developed the planetary boundaries framework for measuring and tracking the stability and resilience of the Earth system…
Charting a transformational course toward a safe and just future: the Earth Commission’s contribution
Johan Rockström, Fatima Denton, Albert V. Norstrom, Jesse F Abrams, Lubna Alam, David I. Armstrong McKay, Xuemei Bai, Govindasamy Bala, Chris A. Boulton, Wendy Broadgate, Stuart Bunn, Joshua E Buxton, Juan Cardenas, Raimon C. Ylla-Català, Fabrice Declerck, Natalie Davis, Donovan Dennis, Miriam L. Diamond, Carl Folke, Charlotte Kendra Gotangco Gonzales, Georgia Graells, Joyeeta Gupta, Syezlin Hasan, Lisa Jacobson, Steven J. Lade, Timothy M. Lenton, Sina Loriani, Cornelia Ludwig, Pablo A Marquet, Qondi Moyo, Aditi Mukherji, Nebjosa Nakicenovic, David Obura, Oki Taikan, Daniel Ospina, Maria Fernanda Peña, Laura Pereira, Keywan Riahi, Maria del Mar Rojas, Anindita Sarkar, Anna Shalin, Ben Stewart-Koster, Bo Su, Rashid Sumaila, Tharammal Thejna, Luc van Vliet, Detlef vanVuuren, Peter H. Verburg, Zhanyun Wang, Ricarda Winkelmann, Cunde Xiao, Caroline Zimm
Earth’s Future
Humans are now operating well outside the planetary conditions that enabled stable and equitable development. The situation is urgent…
Conceptualizing Water System Justice in the Anthropocene
Joyeeta Gupta, Hilmer J. Bosch, Andrea B. Müller, Luc van Vliet
WIREs Water
Given the growing demand for water justice, the systemic nature of the water problem, the fragmented water governance and disparate…
Prioritising the purpose: a Water System Justice framework for water utilities
Klaas Schwartz; Joyeeta Gupta; Mariana Mazzucato; Hilmer J. Bosch; Luc William van Vliet
Water Policy
Water utilities provide water, sewerage and sanitation services. Yet, they have failed worldwide to provide safely managed water services to at…
2024
Publications by CLIFF
Supply-side climate policy and fossil fuels in developing countries: a neo-Gramscian perspective
Augusto Heras
International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics
This article examines the perspectives of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) on climate change mitigation and fossil fuel supply within…
Applying earth system justice to phase out fossil fuels: learning from the injustice of adopting 1.5 °C over 1 °C
Joyeeta Gupta, Yang Chen, David I. Armstrong Mckay, Paola Fezzigna, Giuliana Gentile, Aljoscha Karg, Luc van Vliet, Steven J. Lade & Lisa Jacobson
International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics
The Paris Agreement has seen the adoption of a 1.5° to 2 °C climate target, based on the belief that climate change becomes ‘dangerous’ above…
Pension funds and fossil fuel phase-out: historical developments and limitations of pension climate strategies
Clara McDonnell
International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics
Despite the decades of international climate negotiations and several landmark agreements, global efforts to date to restrict fossil fuel…
The split ladder of participation: A literature review and dynamic path forward
Margot Hurlbert, Joyeeta Gupta
Environmental Science & Policy
Participation of people in decision making and tackling complex problems where there is lack of consensus on the science and relevant values…
Transport within earth system boundaries
Joyeeta Gupta, Yang Chen, Crelis Rammelt
NPJ Sustainable Mobility and Transport
Achieving a socially and environmentally sustainable mobility and transport system necessitates a multifaceted approach that…
The split ladder of policy problems, participation, and politicization: constitutional water change in Ecuador and Chile
Margot Hurlbert, Joyeeta Gupta
International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics
There is debate about whether complex problems should be addressed technocratically or whether they should be politicized. While many tend…
A just world on a safe planet: Earth-system boundaries, translations, and transformations
Joyeeta Gupta, Xuemei Bai, Diana M. Liverman, Johan Rockström, Dahe Qin, Ben Stewart-Koster, Juan C. Rocha, Lisa Jacobson, Jesse F. Abrams, Lauren S. Andersen, David I. Armstrong McKay, Govindasamy Bala, Stuart E. Bunn, Daniel Ciobanu, Fabrice DeClerck, Kristie L. Ebi, Lauren Gifford, Christopher Gordon, Syezlin Hasan, Norichika Kanie, Giulia Gentile
The Lancet Planetary Health
The health of the planet and its people are at risk. The deterioration of the global commons—ie, the natural systems that support life on Earth…
Earth system boundaries and Earth system justice: sharing the ecospace
Joyeeta Gupta, Klaudia Prodani, Xuemei Bai, Lauren Gifford, Tim M. Lenton, Ilona Otto, Laura Pereira, Crelis Rammelt, Joeri Scholtens, Joan David Tàbara
Environmental Politics
The literature on planetary and Earth system boundaries calls on humans to live within those boundaries. Sharing such limited ecospace raises…
Fossil fuels, stranded assets, and the energy transition in the Global South: A systematic literature review
Augusto Heras, Joyeeta Gupta
WIREs Climate Change
Complying with the Paris Agreement on Climate Change requires leaving fossil fuels underground (LFFU), which raises justice issues regarding the…
Leaving Fossil Fuels Underground: Actors, Arguments and Approaches in the Global South and Global North
Joyeeta Gupta, Barbara Hogenboom, Arthur Rempel, Malin Olofsson
How can the world move away from a century-old global system based on fossil fuels? And how can societies in the Global South and Global North…
Publications related to CLIFF
The planetary commons: A new paradigm for safeguarding Earth-regulating systems in the Anthropocene
Johan Rockström, Louis Kotzé, Svetlana Milutinović, Frank Biermann, Victor Brovkin, Jonathan Donges, Jonas Ebbesson, Duncan French, Joyeeta Gupta, Rakhyun Kim, Timothy Lenton, Dominic Lenzi, Nebojsa Nakicenovic, Barbara Neumann, Fabian Schuppert, Ricarda Winkelmann, Klaus Bosselmann, Carl Folke, Wolfgang Lucht, David Schlosberg, Katherine Richardson, Will Steffen
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
The Anthropocene signifies the start of a no-analogue trajectory of the Earth system that is fundamentally different from the Holocene. This…
Translating Earth system boundaries for cities and businesses
Xuemei Bai, Syezlin Hasan, Lauren Seaby Andersen, Anders Bjørn, Şiir Kilkiş, Daniel Ospina, Jianguo Liu, Sarah E. Cornell, Oscar Sabag Muñoz, Ariane de Bremond, Beatrice Crona, Fabrice DeClerck, Joyeeta Gupta, Holger Hoff, Nebojsa Nakicenovic, David Obura, Gail Whiteman, Wendy Broadgate, Steven J. Lade, Juan Rocha, Johan Rockström, Ben Stewart-Koster, Detlef van Vuuren, Caroline Zimm
Nature Sustainability
Operating within safe and just Earth system boundaries requires mobilizing key actors across scale to set targets and take actions accordingly…
Governing for a safe and just future with science-based targets: opportunities and limitations
Lauren Gifford, Diana Liverman, Joyeeta Gupta, Lisa Jacobson
Climate and Development
This paper reflects on the work of the Earth Commission and the Global Commons Alliance to include climate and environmental justice in…
Reply to: Concerns regarding proposed groundwater Earth system boundary
S. E. Bunn, B. Stewart-Koster, C. Ndehedehe, C. Gordon, J. Rockström, J. Gupta, D. Qin & S. J. Lade
Nature
Groundwater is widely used for domestic and agricultural purposes, but is subject to increasing risks from overexploitation. Responding to this…
2023
Publications by CLIFF
Beyond divest vs. engage: a review of the role of institutional investors in an inclusive fossil fuel phase-out
Clara McDonnell
Climate Policy
Institutional investors, who control as much as $154 trillion globally, may play an important role in shaping the energy transition as major…
Inclusive development, leaving no one behind, justice and the sustainable development goals
Joyeeta Gupta, Courtney Vegelin
International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics
The focus on inclusive development within the 2030 Agenda highlights the contradiction between an inherent ‘business-as-usual’ approach subject…
The role of (multi)national oil and gas companies in leaving fossil fuels underground: A systematic literature review
Janina Herzog-Hawelka, Joyeeta Gupta
Energy Research & Social Science
(Multi)national oil and gas (O&G) companies need to drastically change their business activities to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions…
Safe and just Earth system boundaries
Johan Rockström, Joyeeta Gupta, Dahe Qin, Steven J. Lade, Jesse F. Abrams, Lauren S. Andersen, David I. Armstrong McKay, Xuemei Bai, Govindasamy Bala, Stuart E. Bunn, Daniel Ciobanu, Fabrice DeClerck, Kristie Ebi, Lauren Gifford, Christopher Gordon, Syezlin Hasan, Norichika Kanie, Timothy M. Lenton, Sina Loriani, Diana M. Liverman, Awaz Mohamed, Nebojsa Nakicenovic, David Obura, Daniel Ospina, Klaudia Prodani, Crelis Rammelt, Boris Sakschewski, Joeri Scholtens, Ben Stewart-Koster, Thejna Tharammal, Detlef van Vuuren, Peter H. Verburg, Ricarda Winkelmann, Caroline Zimm, Elena M. Bennett, Stefan Bringezu, Wendy Broadgate, Pamela A. Green, Lei Huang, Lisa Jacobson, Christopher Ndehedehe, Simona Pedde, Juan Rocha, Marten Scheffer, Lena Schulte-Uebbing, Wim de Vries, Cunde Xiao, Chi Xu, Xinwu Xu, Noelia Zafra-Calvo, Xin Zhang
The stability and resilience of the Earth system and human well-being are inseparably linked, yet their interdependencies are generally…
Earth system justice needed to identify and live within Earth system boundaries
Joyeeta Gupta, Diana Liverman, Klaudia Prodani, Paulina Aldunce, Xuemei Bai, Wendy Broadgate, Daniel Ciobanu, Lauren Gifford, Chris Gordon, Margot Hurlbert, Cristina Y. A. Inoue, Lisa Jacobson, Norichika Kanie, Steven J. Lade, Timothy M. Lenton, David Obura, Chukwumerije Okereke, Ilona M. Otto, Laura Pereira, Johan Rockström, Joeri Scholtens, Juan Rocha, Ben Stewart-Koster, J. David Tàbara, Crelis Rammelt, Peter H. Verburg
Nature Sustainability
Living within planetary limits requires attention to justice as biophysical boundaries are not inherently just. Through collaboration between natural and…
Publications related to CLIFF
Achieving a nature- and people-positive future
David O. Obura, Fabrice DeClerck, Peter H. Verburg, Joyeeta Gupta, Jesse F. Abrams, Xuemei Bai, Stuart Bunn, Kristie L. Ebi, Lauren Gifford, Chris Gordon, Lisa Jacobson, Timothy M. Lenton, Diana Liverman, Awaz Mohamed, Klaudia Prodani, Juan Carlos Rocha, Johan Rockström, Boris Sakschewski, Ben Stewart-Koster, Detlef van Vuuren, Ricarda Winkelmann, Caroline Zimm
One Earth
Despite decades of increasing investment in conservation, we have not succeeded in “bending the curve” of biodiversity decline. Efforts to meet…
Why ideas of ‘planetary boundaries’ must uphold environmental justice
International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics
Earth-system boundaries define a safe operating space for humanity. Accounting for the planet’s most vulnerable people provides a stark warning…
Nationally determined contributions-enhanced climate mitigation actions and safeguards (ECMAS) indicator framework for helping countries design sustainable and inclusive net-zero emissions reduction outcomes
Julius G. Muchemi, Joyeeta Gupta, Michael K. McCall, Karin Pfeffer
Carbon Footprints
Global warming is unequivocal. The Paris Agreement requires that countries undertake a global stocktake beginning in 2023 at the 28th…
We need to collectively redefine development: Q&A with Joyeeta Gupta
Joyeeta Gupta
One Earth
Dr. Joyeeta Gupta, professor at the University of Amsterdam and IHE-Delft Institute for Water Education, explores the relationship between the…
Outcomes from the First European Planetary Health Congress at ARTIS in Amsterdam
Remco Kort, Koen Arts, Josep M. Antó, Matty P. Berg, Gabrielle Cepella, Jennifer Cole, Amarylle van Doorn, Tomás van Gorp, Milo Grootjen, Joyeeta Gupta, Colin Hill, Eva van der Heide, Jef Huisman, Jopke Janmaat, Cristina O’Callaghan-Gordo, Juliette Mattijsen, Tulsi Modi, Evanne Nowak, Hans C. Ossebaard, Jessica den Outer, Bruno Pot, Frederike Praasterink, Marju Prass, Alexandre Robert, Michiel Roelse, Jaap Seidell, Hans Slabbekoorn, Wouter Spek, Ralf Klemens Stappen, Marleen Stikker, Jorieke van der Stelt, Marian Stuiver, Rembrandt Sutorius, Jip van Trommel, Martine Veenman, Christian Weij, Pim Martens
Challenges
The First European Planetary Health Congress, held from 5 to 7 July 2023 at ARTIS in Amsterdam, represented a significant milestone in the global…
On Behalf of My Delegation …
Joyeeta Gupta, Jennifer Allan
This document pays tribute to negotiators worldwide, but especially from the Global South, who have, under very complicated circumstances…
Shaping Africa’s Climate Action through Climate Litigation: An Impact Assessment
Jovan Ivan Mugga, Joyeeta Gupta, René Lefeber
Recht in Afrika
The academic literature scarcely covers court cases from the Global South on climate chan-
ge. Hence, this paper examines the impact of…
2022
Publications by CLIFF
Water property rights in investor-state contracts on extractive activities, affects water governance: An empirical assessment of 80 contracts in Africa and Asia
Hilmer J. Bosch, Joyeeta Gupta
Review of European, Comparative & International Environmental Law
In view of increasing globalization, the ongoing promotion of foreign direct investment and the lack of comparative literature on how water…
Lessons learnt from international environmental agreements for the Stockholm + 50 Conference: celebrating 20 Years of INEA
Joyeeta Gupta, Courtney Vegelin, Nicky Pouw
International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics
International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics (INEA) was born in 2001 after a gestation period of two years where we debated…
Equitable, effective, and feasible approaches for a prospective fossil fuel transition
Arthur Rempel, Joyeeta Gupta
WIREs Climate Change
Most fossil fuel resources must remain unused to comply with the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. Scholars and policymakers debate which…
Equity, justice and the SDGs: lessons learnt from two decades of INEA scholarship
Joyeeta Gupta, Aarti Gupta, Courtney Vegelin
International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics
Environmental justice issues have been incrementally but consistently covered within this journal in the last two decades. This article…
Climate action or distraction? Exploring Investor Initiatives and Implications for Unextractable Fossil Fuels
Clara McDonnell, Arthur Rempel, Joyeeta Gupta
Energy Research & Social Science
Limiting global warming to 1.5 °C requires drastically reducing fossil fuel production and use. Institutional investors who invest in fossil fuels…
Publications Related to CLIFF
IPCC emission scenarios: How did critiques affect their quality and relevance 1990–2022?
Jiesper Tristan Standsbjerg Pedersen, Detlef van Vuuren, Joyeeta Gupta, Filipe Duarte Santos, Jae Edmonds, Rob Swart
Global Environmental Change
Long-term global emission scenarios enable the analysis of future climate change, impacts, and response strategies by providing insight into…
Symposium: Environmental Justice and law
Joyeeta Gupta
On the basis of my work in three projects (co-chairing UNEP’s Global Environment Outlook-6, co-chairing Future Earth’s Earth Commission, and…
Sustainable development, climate change and planetary justice: governance challenges
Joyeeta Gupta, Klaudia Prodani
Handbook on Governance and Development
The climate crisis is a development problem – it questions the way societies define development and their right to development given the…
Impacts of meeting minimum access on critical earth systems amidst the Great Inequality
Crelis F. Rammelt, Joyeeta Gupta, Diana Liverman, Joeri Scholtens, Daniel Ciobanu, Jesse F. Abrams, Xuemei Bai, Lauren Gifford, Christopher Gordon, Margot Hurlbert, Cristina Y. A. Inoue, Lisa Jacobson, Steven J. Lade, Timothy M. Lenton, David I. Armstrong McKay, Nebojsa Nakicenovic, Chukwumerije Okereke, Ilona M. Otto, Laura M. Pereira, Klaudia Prodani, Johan Rockström, Ben Stewart-Koster, Peter H. Verburg & Caroline Zimm
Nature Sustainability
The Sustainable Development Goals aim to improve access to resources and services, reduce environmental degradation, eradicate poverty…
The Contribution of Transpiration to Precipitation Over African Watersheds
S. A. Te Wierik, J. Keune, D. G. Miralles, J. Gupta, Y. A. Artzy-Randrup, L. Gimeno, R. Nieto, L. H. Cammeraat
Water Resources Research
The redistribution of biological (transpiration) and non-biological (interception loss, soil evaporation) fluxes of terrestrial evaporation via atmospheric…
About
The CLIFF project was financed by the European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.
Grant agreement: No. 101020082
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