Publications

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. 2025. The human right to a safe climate. Nature Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-025-01700-y

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 in aligning international law with climate science. Both affirm climate change as a human-caused existential threat 1 , 2 . The IACtHR recognized the right to a safe climate and the disproportionate harms to vulnerable groups (for example, women, Indigenous Peoples, Afro-desce...

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. 2025. Charting a transformational course toward a safe and just future: the Earth Commission’s contribution. ESS Open Archive. https://doi.org/10.22541/essoar.175492980.08779908/v1

Humans are now operating well outside the planetary conditions that enabled stable and equitable development. The situation is urgent — we need a swift and profound shift in direction — a collective transformation. In response, the Earth Commission has developed a science-based framework that integrates biophysical limits with justice considerations, aiming to secure a liveable and dignified future for all. The Earth Commissio...

Johan Rockström, Albert V. Norström, Nathanial Matthews, Reinette Biggs, Carl Folke, Ameil Harikishun, Saleemul Huq, Nisha Krishnan, Lila Warszawski, Deon Nel. 2023. Shaping a resilient future in response to COVID-19. Nature Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-023-01105-9

Science today defines resilience as the capacity to live and develop with change and uncertainty, which is well beyond just the ability to ‘bounce back’ to the status quo. It involves the capacity to absorb shocks, avoid tipping points, navigate surprise and keep options alive, and the ability to innovate and transform in the face of crises and traps. Five attributes underlie this capacity: diversity, redundancy, connectivity,...

Johan Rockström, Albert V. Norström, Nathanial Matthews, Reinette Biggs, Carl Folke, Ameil Harikishun, Saleemul Huq, Nisha Krishnan, Lila Warszawski, Deon Nel. 2023. Shaping a resilient future in response to COVID-19. Nature Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-023-01105-9

Science today defines resilience as the capacity to live and develop with change and uncertainty, which is well beyond just the ability to ‘bounce back’ to the status quo. It involves the capacity to absorb shocks, avoid tipping points, navigate surprise and keep options alive, and the ability to innovate and transform in the face of crises and traps. Five attributes underlie this capacity: diversity, redundancy, connectivity,...

Norstrom, Albert, V, Agarwal, Bina, Balvanera, Patricia, Baptiste, Brigitte, Bennett, Elena M., Brondizio, Eduardo, Biggs, Reinette, Campbell, Bruce, Carpenter, Stephen R., Castilla, Juan Carlos, Castro, Antonio J., Cramer, Wolfgang, Cumming, Graeme S., Felipe-Lucia, Maria, Fischer, Joern, Folke, Carl, DeFries, Ruth, Gelcich, Stefan, Groth, Juliane, Speranza, Chinwe Ifejika, Jacobs, Sander, Hofmann, Johanna, Hughes, Terry P., Lam, David P. M., Loos, Jacqueline, Manyani, Amanda, Martin-Lopez, Berta, Meacham, Megan, Moersberger, Hannah, Nagendra, Harini, Pereira, Laura, Polasky, Stephen, Schoon, Michael, Schultz, Lisen, Selomane, Odirilwe, Spierenburg, Marja. 2022. The programme on ecosystem change and society (PECS) - a decade of deepening social-ecological research through a place-based focus. Ecosystems and People. https://doi.org/10.1080/26395916.2022.2133173

The Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS) was established in 2011, and is now one of the major international social-ecological systems (SES) research networks. During this time, SES research has undergone a phase of rapid growth and has grown into an influential branch of sustainability science. In this Perspective, we argue that SES research has also deepened over the past decade, and helped to shed light on key di...

Malmborg, K., Wallin, I., Brukas, V., Do, T., Lodin, I., Neset, T., Norström, A., Powell, N., Tonderski, K.. 2022. Knowledge co-production in the Helge å catchment: a comparative analysis. Ecosystems and People. doi.org/10.1080/26395916.2022.2125583

Addressing sustainability challenges in landscape management requires processes for co-producing usable knowledge together with those who will use that knowledge. Participatory futures methods are powerful tools for attaining such knowledge. The applications of such methods are diverse and understanding the intricacies of the knowledge co-production process is important to further develop these research practices. To improve p...

Norström, A., Agarwal, B., Balvanera, P., Baptiste, B., Bennett, E., Brondízio, E., Biggs, R., Campbell, B., Carpenter, S., Castilla, J., Castro, A., Cramer, W., Cumming, G., Felipe-Lucia, M., Fischer, J., Folke, C., DeFries, R., Gelcich, S., Groth, J., Ifejika Speranza, C., Jacobs, S., Hofmann, J., Hughes, T., Lam, D., Loos, J., Manyani, A., Martín-López, B., Meacham, M., Moersberger, H., Nagendra, H., Pereira, L., Polasky, S., Schoon, M., Schultz, L., Selomane, O., Spierenburg, M.. 2022. The programme on ecosystem change and society (PECS) – a decade of deepening social-ecological research through a place-based focus. Ecosystems and People. doi.org/10.1080/26395916.2022.2133173

The Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS) was established in 2011, and is now one of the major international social-ecological systems (SES) research networks. During this time, SES research has undergone a phase of rapid growth and has grown into an influential branch of sustainability science. In this Perspective, we argue that SES research has also deepened over the past decade, and helped to shed light on key di...

Meacham, M., Norström, A. V., Peterson, G. D., Andersson, E., Bennett, E.M., Biggs, O., Crouzat, E., Cord, A. F., Enfors, E., Felipe-Lucia, M. R., Fischer, J., Hamann, M., Hanspach, J., Hicks, C., Jacobs, S., Lavorel, S., Locatelli, B., Martín-López, B., Plieninger, T., Queiroz, C. 2022. Advancing research on ecosystem service bundles for comparative assessments and synthesis. Ecosystems and People. https://doi.org/10.1080/26395916.2022.2032356

Social-ecological interactions have been shown to generate interrelated and reoccurring sets of ecosystem services, also known as ecosystem service bundles. Given the potential utility of the bundles concept, along with the recent surge in interest it is timely to reflect on the concept, its current use and potential for the future. Based on our ecosystem service bundle experience, expertise, and ecosystem service bundle analy...

Lam, D., Jiménez-Aceituno, A., Guerrero Lara, L., Sellberg, M., Norström, A., Moore, M., Peterson, G., Olsson, P. 2022. Amplifying actions for food system transformation: insights from the Stockholm region. Sustainability Science. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11625-022-01154-7

Food is essential to people and is one of the main ways in which people are connected to the world’s ecosystems. However, food systems often cause ecosystem degradation and produce ill-health, which has generated increasing calls to transform food systems to be more sustainable. The Swedish food system is currently undergoing substantial change. A varied set of local actors have created alternative sustainability initiatives t...

Malmborg, K., Enfors-Kautsky, E., Schultz, L., Norström, A. 2022. Embracing complexity in landscape management: Learning and impacts of a participatory resilience assessment. Ecosystems and People. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/26395916.2022.2061596

Landscapes and their management are at the center of many of the sustainability challenges that we face. Landscapes can be described as social-ecological systems shaped by a myriad of human activities and biophysical processes, interacting across space and time. Managing them sustainably requires considering this complexity. Resilience thinking offers ways to address complexity in decision-making. In this paper, we analyse th...