Towards Plurilateral Planetary Politics

Opening speech prepared for the 2026 World Sustainable Development Summit‘s plenary session ‘Multilateralism as a Force for Hope and Impact’, 26 February, Taj Palace, New Delhi

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Colleagues and Friends,

It is a special honour to address you all at the 2026 World Sustainable Development Summit. My congratulations to TERI, The Energy and Resources Institute, for the remarkable success in sustaining and growing this important global event series over 25 years.

This is the second time I have spoken at the Delhi summit. I first stood here in 2003, as a speaker at one of the very first Sustainable Development Summits. At that time, I presented proposals for effective and just global sustainability governance. Today, I am honoured to return and reflect on the same topic.

Yet the world has changed profoundly over these 20 years. Many of the sustainability challenges we discussed 23 years ago remain unresolved. Greenhouse gas concentrations continue to rise, and the climate system is approaching critical thresholds. Thirty-five percent of the targets under the Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations in 2015 are either off track or making only modest progress, and roughly 700 million people still live in extreme poverty.

In short, we face an accelerating planetary crisis. The scale of these challenges demands that we move beyond traditional “environmental policy” toward new forms of earth system governance and planetary politics, recognizing that we are all part of a single, interdependent, and transforming planetary system. Yet, the political context has grown much more complex.

As an opening intervention for our panel discussions, I wish to make three brief points.

First, the optimism that shaped global governance in the 1990s and early 2000s—the confidence in universal institutions, the belief in linear progress, and the trust in stable international alliances—is weakening. We may be witnessing the end of universalism as the organizing principle of global politics. Sustainability governance today faces new realities and may require new approaches.

In particular, the future might demand a stronger emphasis on plurilateral politics—politics that rely less on universal agreements and more on flexible coalitions of willing and capable actors. What was once the exception may become the new normal. Let there be no doubt: the United Nations remains indispensable. We must defend and strengthen the UN framework wherever possible. But we may also need a more layered approach to multilateralism, where groups of like-minded countries move forward within and alongside the UN system. For academics and policymakers, this raises difficult questions: How can plurilateral cooperation function effectively and fairly without some of the major powers? How can we align plurilateral cooperation with planetary challenges?

Second, while the United Nations emphasizes the 17 Sustainable Development Goals adopted in 2015, their political steering effect remains limited. At Utrecht University, our team has studied the political impact of the SDGs over the past decade, and the findings are sobering. So far, the SDGs have had limited political effects at global, national, and local levels. Their impact has been largely discursive—shaping how actors talk more than how they act. There is little evidence of fundamental institutional realignment, major financial reallocation, or significantly more stringent policies directly due to the SDGs. If the SDGs are to become truly transformative, new approaches are needed.

Third, international institutional design matters—and international institutions need reform. Many global governance systems were created in the mid-20th century, yet we now face 21st-century planetary risks. For example, consensus rules in some UN bodies often block progress, making urgent reforms in international decision-making necessary. There are many proposals: a UN Parliamentary Assembly, a United Nations Council on Sustainable Development, a Planetary Protection Council, a World Environment Organization, or a Global Forum of Civil Society. All are interesting and inspiring ideas. Yet any such reform must confront political realities, which is where academic research plays a vital role.

To conclude, we live in an age of earth system transformation without adequate earth system governance. We must defend multilateralism—but also adapt to new geopolitical realities. Multilateralism has not failed; it must evolve.

The need of the hour is new forms of plurilateral planetary politics that are effective, legitimate, and just. The challenge for the academic community is to develop pathways toward novel forms of planetary politics. The 2026 World Sustainable Development Summit is an important venue for bringing together academics and policymakers from the Global South and North for forging new research programmes and academic alliances.

I look forward to our discussion.

Thank you.