The Earth System Governance Project is a core project of the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP).

The Project defines ‘earth system governance’ as the interrelated system of formal and informal rules, rule-making systems and actor-networks at all levels of human society (from local to global) that are set up to steer societies towards preventing, mitigating, and adapting to environmental change and earth system transformation, within the normative context of sustainable development.