In December 2025, the Global Challenges Foundation (GCF), released Global Catastrophic Risks 2026 Report, warning that “Humanity stands within the governance of its own destiny. We are pushing the planet beyond the limits of a safe operating space with more than three-quarters of the Earth’s support systems outside the safe zone. The systems we build now will decide whether Earth remains habitable.”
The report examines five of the biggest risks facing humanity today — climate change, biodiversity collapse, weapons of mass destruction, artificial intelligence in military decision-making and near-Earth asteroids. It highlights that a lack of effective global governance is a key factor in this emerging planetary crisis, and notes some initiatives of organizations which the foundation is supporting to build global governance mechanisms that are fit-for purpose.
These include projects of the Earth Commission, Igarapé Institute, Democracy Without Borders, ISWE Foundation, Stop Ecocide International, European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights, Article 109 coalition, Global Governance Forum, International Peace Institute, European Institute of Peace and Plataforma Cipó.
Earth Governance the key to addressing global catastrophic risks
According to the report, “Global risks are becoming increasingly interconnected, accelerating and reinforcing one another across environmental, technological and security domains. As this report shows, outdated governance, rising geopolitical tensions and fragmented institutions leave humanity exposed. Addressing escalating systemic threats requires renewed legitimacy, stronger cooperation and a more adaptive, anticipatory global governance architecture capable of managing shared risks.”
This analysis reflects the conclusions of the 2023 Report of the Climate Governance Commission: Governing Our Planetary Emergency which was the stimulus for establishing Mobilizing an Earth Governance Alliance.
The Climate Governance Commission 2023 Report, like the 2026 Global Catastrophic Risks Report, identifies the need to develop global governance mechanisms that are ‘fit-for-purpose’ to address global risks, and highlights a number of specific governance proposals and campaigns that are now being promoted by MEGA. There is considerable overlap between the two reports and the earth governance initiatives being promoted by them. In addition, most of the organizations mentioned in the 2026 Global Catastrophic Risks Report are also MEGA participating organizations.
Earth Governance initiatives to meet the catastrophic risks
- Earth system stability – planetary boundaries
“The Earth system is a single, dynamic web of physical, chemical and biological processes that regulate carbon, water and nutrient cycles across land, oceans, atmosphere and ice,” write Fatima Denton and Johan Rockström in the section of the 2026 Global Catastrophic Risks Report on Earth System Stability. The Report discusses current scientific understandings on the risks to these earth systems and the work of the Earth Commission to promote a scientific approach to protect the earth’s ecosystem. It also advances a global commons approach to build cooperative management of Earth’s interconnected biophysical systems — atmosphere, cryosphere, land and biosphere.
The Earth Commission advances this work through four important workstreams: Safe and Just Boundaries; Transformation Pathways; Justice, Governance and Economics; and Translation Actors and Agency.
MEGA and the Climate Governance Commission pick up on these ideas by:
- Advocating for a Declaration of Planetary Emergency on the unprecedented Earth System Risk.
Such a UN declaration would serve to increase political attention on climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss and help to build international cooperation and national momentum to keep the planet within the nine planetary boundaries. See: MEGA Policy Paper 1: Code Red for Humanity. - Promoting the UN Secretary-General’s proposal to Repurpose the UN Trusteeship Council to provide governance for the Global Commons.
A repurposed Trusteeship Council could exercise collective trusteeship over the commons highlighting and assisting to implement obligations under international treaty law and customary law to protect the commons for current and future generations. - Proposing a coordinated international Earth system scientific monitoring system
Ensuring a stable global climate is interdependent with the health of multiple Planetary Boundaries. The proposal for a more coordinated international Earth system scientific monitoring system would assist this objective. Such a system could include, for example, a Science-Policy-Action Network as proposed by the UN High-Level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism. See: MEGA Policy Paper 4: International Earth System Monitoring.
- Catastrophic climate change
The 2026 Global Catastrophic Risks report notes that “Despite global commitments, current action is insufficient. Preventing catastrophic impacts demands rapid emissions cuts, stronger governance and coordinated, equitable efforts to protect planetary stability.”
The Report identifies a number of financial incentives for a green transition, including carbon taxes, introducing a Tobin tax to support climate change mitigation and adaptation, and green financing.
These, and other financial and industry-focused governance mechanisms, have been pioneered, researched and developed by the Climate Governance Commission and are being promoted by MEGA. See, for example the MEGA proposals on Global financing mechanisms to support transition to green economies, Supplier Carbon-Disclosure Platform, Global Clean Investment Risk Mitigation Mechanism and a Global Alliance on Circular Economy.
The Report notes the work of the Igarapé Institute to promote a Global Climate and Nature Council. The government of Brazil has taken up this proposal by inviting the international community to explore the possibility of establishing such a body under the auspices of the United Nations. Such a Climate Council could coordinate the currently fragmented efforts, mechanisms, and institutions addressing climate challenges.
MEGA is promoting and building cooperation on this proposal, including through direct engagement with the government of Brazil. Other relevant governance proposals include:
- An enhanced UN Climate Convention Conference of Parties (COP) process
The COP process has suffered from being heavily politicized and undermined by short-term and narrow perspectives of national self-interest. Reform is necessary to enhance its role and effectiveness. Such reform could include enhanced criteria for COP Presidencies, action-focused meetings, stronger accountability, better climate finance tracking, and elevation of the latest Earth system scientific knowledge at the heart of the COPs.
See MEGA Policy Paper 3: Strengthening the Climate COPs and Climate COPS: A Call for More Effective Meetings.
b. Establishing a Corporate Accountability Mechanism
This could be modelled on initiatives like the European Union Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive which entered-into-force in January 2023 and which requires all large companies and all listed companies (except listed micro-enterprises) to disclose information on what they see as the risks and opportunities arising from social and environmental issues, and on the impact of their activities on people and the environment.
c. Following-up on the ICJ case on climate change
The groundbreaking ICJ Advisory Opinion on climate change (July, 2025) affirmed obligations of States to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to ensure that global temperature rise is held under the 1.5 degree limit, and to provide mitigation and adaptation assistance to the most impacted communities. However, the States most responsible for climate change are failing to respond to this ICJ decision, which identified general responsibilities, but not the specific obligations of individual states. MEGA is working with youth organizations that led the campaign for the climate case, plus like-minded states, in plans for follow-up contentious cases to identify specific obligations of those states most responsible for climate change.
- Ecological collapse
The climate is not the only ecosystem under risk. The Report notes that “Contemporary ecological risks are increasingly global in scale, scope, and impact with strong levels of interconnection not only across national borders, but across continents. Action to address risks, however, needs to be taken at both global and national levels.”
One measure noted in the 2026 Report is the proposal for UN Special Envoy for Future Generations which is being promoted by the United Nations University Centre for Policy and Research, along with the World Future Council and other MEGA participating organizations. Such an envoy would be tasked with representing, within the UN system, the interests of those who are expected to be born over the coming century. The Special Envoy could also support the work of the multilateral system on long-term thinking and foresight.
Of importance is that such an envoy should not be seen as a stand-alone-position, but would work in cooperation with institutional representatives of future generations established at all governance levels including local, national and regional. Already there are some excellent examples of such representatives, including the establishment of a Future Generations Commissioner in Wales, which was a winner of the 2024 World Future Policy Award. For more information, see One big step closer to a UN Special Envoy on Future Generations.
The 2026 Report also addresses individual and corporate responsibility for severe damage to the environment and highlights the campaign to add the crime of ecocide to the Statue of the International Criminal Court (Stop Ecocide campaign). This is gaining considerable traction. See Pacific Island States propose that Ecocide be adopted as a crime under the International Criminal Court.
Proposals for other key governance mechanisms to prevent ecological collapse include:
- Strengthen and expand the International Judicial Institutions
Strong and effective international courts and tribunals are vital to ensure accountability to environmental law, resolve environmental conflicts and protect the climate and environment for current and future generations. The International Court of Justice, International Criminal Court and International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea are three key international judicial institutions that already play a significant role, but whose role could be enhanced. In addition, there are proposals for the establishment of additional judicial institutions, such as an International Court for the Environment and an International Anti Corruption Court. These would complement the existing courts by filling jurisdiction and expertise gaps, in order to provide more comprehensive protection for the environment.
(See MEGA Policy Paper 6: Judicial Institutions and ImPACT Coalition on Strengthening the International Judicial Institutions). - Establish a Global Environment Agency
A GEA could work closely with other international institutions in the energy field, to phase out fossil fuels/greenhouse gases and “phase in” renewable energy, power livelihoods, ensure energy security, and drive holistic well-being. The GEA could be established through an upgrade of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in order to bestow it with ambitious and clear authorities and the capacity to effectively manage our shared global environmental commons. Alternatively, a GEA could be established as an entirely new institution.
- Nature in global governance
The 2026 Report highlights the need to include the wellbeing, rights and stewardship of nature in emerging governance systems. This includes both a top-down approach regarding global governance, and a bottom-up approach affirming local and indigenous management of the environment that includes the rights and well-being of nature. The report cites the important work of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in this regard, as well as the work of Plataforma Cipó.
The Earth Trusteeship Initiative has been advancing this by highlighting current examples of trusteeship arrangements and mechanisms at local, national and international levels, and by campaigning to strengthen and expand earth trusteeship in order to better manage natural environments and ecosystems.
Earth Trusteeship is a legal and political framework in which natural entities are not owned by anyone, but which are managed under a ‘trusteeship’ to ensure their sustainability. This could include rivers, lakes, mountains, forests, national parks, national common areas or trans-national regions such as the global commons, which includes the oceans, atmosphere, outer space, seabed and Antarctica.
At local and national levels, this includes recognition of indigenous law and practices of trusteeship, and establishing additional protected common areas. At the global level, this could include a re-purposing of the UN Trusteeship Council into a forum for building cooperative management of the global commons, as proposed by the UN Secretary-General.
See MEGA Policy Paper 8: Strengthening and Expanding Earth Trusteeship
- UN Reform
The UN Charter, penned 80 years ago, provides the basic structure of the UN. The world has changed considerably since then, but the Charter has not. Indeed, the current structure appears inadequate to effectively manage today’s realities: increasing conflict, potential nuclear war, an unfolding environmental catastrophe, the uncontained growth of artificial intelligence, and widening global inequalities.
The 2026 Report notes in particular, the initiatives of the, Article 109 coalition and the Global Governance Forum to reform the UN Charter.
The Article 109 coalition focuses primarily on the process to reform the UN Charter, i.e. through a UN Conference held in accordance with Article 109 of the UN Charter. The Global Governance Forum has published A Second United Nations Charter: Modernizing the UN for a New Generation, which suggests specific Charter Amendment. proposals.
These build on research and proposals in Global Governance and the Emergence of Global Institutions for the 21st Century, by Maja Groff, Augusto Lopez-Claros and Arthur Dahl, a groundbreaking 2020 publication supported by the Global Challenges Foundation’s New Shape Prize.
“The international community has long-unfinished homework that has remained undone essentially since the adoption of the UN Charter in 1945; that is, the meaningful and progressive development of the Charter’s core principles,” says Maja Groff, Convenor of the Climate Governance Commission and Executive Co-Chair of MEGA. “Essential to such a 1945 Charter upgrade would be a significant enhancement and affirmation of an international order of stability, peace and excellence, fully based on the rule of international law. Charter revision work should ensure that international legal institutions, procedures and safeguards are fully in place to realize the full vision of the UN Charter as an instrument of effective peace, stability and shared prosperity.”
MEGA is active in both of these initiatives, and in other complementary work on earth governance proposals that would require UN Charter reform. This includes, for example, proposals to add Earth system management in the Charter as a fourth pillar of the UN and to repurpose the UN Trusteeship Council to provide governance for the Global Commons.
Conclusion: Path of hope to better global governance
The 2026 Report concludes with a message of hope for better global governance.
“Rather than turning inward toward nationalism and isolation, we must rebuild trust in the rules, institutions and norms that still hold while modernising them to meet new realities. Strengthening accountability, reforming international law and giving global systems the capacity to act is essential to restoring legitimacy and effectiveness.”
“The challenges ahead are significant. However, they also offer an opportunity to rethink how we cooperate on a shared planet and to reimagine a global governance system fit for the risks and realities of our time and those still to come.”
MEGA is committed to delivering this path of hope.
