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Risk Academy, led by the Nexus Consortium · Course catalogue · Governance, Policy and International Affairs

International Affairs and Diplomacy

Climate and nature governance

Climate and nature governance, taught twice over: as the working methods of the field and as its frontier since 2024, with labs on the Academy's tools, open data and the Nexus Standards.

Core course Frontier course

The discipline

01Core course · L2 Intermediate

Climate and nature governance: foundations and practice

This area covers the institutions and law that govern climate and nature risk: adaptation planning and institutions, nationally determined contributions, biodiversity frameworks, disclosure governance, land, ocean and river basin governance, climate justice and the gaps between commitments and implementation.

Level
L2 Intermediate
Study time
about 24 hours (planning estimate)
Status
In authoring
Prerequisites
An L1 course in the area, or an entry review

Why now

Adaptation indicators and finance goals define how adaptation progress and gaps will be tracked in national planning. COP30 Presidency (Brazil), Normative, 1 July 2026

Learning outcomes

  1. Define nationally determined contribution and the other key terms of the discipline and use them correctly in a written case
  2. Explain adaptation institutions and planning and climate risk governance with a worked example and its source
  3. Apply the discipline's method to a documented case and explain each result with its source
  4. Analyse a named case against climate disclosure governance, stating evidence, date and limits

Modules

  1. Adaptation institutions and planning
    • Adaptation institutions and planning
    • Climate risk governance
    • Climate disclosure governance
  2. Nature and biodiversity law
    • Nature and biodiversity law
    • Land and ocean governance
    • River basin governance
  3. Climate justice
    • Climate justice
    • Implementation gaps
  4. Lab: the discipline's method
    • The adaptation finance gap is a needs estimate minus a flow; a flow growing at a stated rate closes the gap in a number of years that the logarithm of the ratio sets, and that number is what a stocktake puts before negotiators.
    • Work the method through a documented case and explain each result
    • Read the method's sources and stated values

Labs with Academy tools

Nexus Standards

Teaches

  • NRS-X1 Climate change risk and adaptation
  • NRS-N5 Biodiversity and nature risk and resilience
  • NRS-H105 Hazard family: Climate intervention technologies
  • NRS-M12 Method fabric: Policy, regulation and governance
  • NRS-M17 Method fabric: Climate, nature and biodiversity

Relies on

  • NS-1 The UNI and the artefact catalogue
  • NS-16 UNI application profile (how articles, documents, code, data, APIs and interfaces carry the UNI)
  • NRS-C1 Risk vocabulary and ontology
  • NRS-C2 Risk assessment method
  • NRS-C3 Hazard, exposure, vulnerability and capacity data
  • NRS-C4 Risk data model, identifiers and exchange
  • NRS-C7 Early warning, triggers and anticipatory action
  • NRS-C8 Evidence, uncertainty and provenance

Assessment

  • 40%Lab recordWork the discipline's method through a documented case and explain each result with its source and date
  • 40%Case memoApply the discipline's methods to a named place or organisation, stating evidence and limits
  • 20%Key terms checkShort answers on the key terms, marked against the definitions

Delivery

  • Self-paced online, with the labs in the browser
  • Cohort study over six to eight weeks, with a weekly lab review
  • Co-delivered with a partner institution, inside its own courses

Partner on this course

  • Co-teach a module and bring a current case from your work
  • Host a cohort for your learners, with your own schedule and review
  • Contribute a lab: a dataset your institution publishes openly, or a model
  • Review the course content and its references before it opens
  • Translate the course and adapt its cases to your region

How institutions and experts take part

In the Academy LMS

Course on the learning platform
Intermediate, 4 topics
Cohort group
A community group for each cohort of learners
Achievement
Recorded on completion of the assessed work

References

  1. COP30 Presidency (Brazil), Normative, 1 July 2026
  2. UNEP, Adaptation Gap Report 2024, 2024
  3. IPCC, Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, 2022
  4. Jordan and others, Emergence of polycentric climate governance and its future prospects, 2015
02Live map

Habitat condition in Peru

Vegetation, land cover, fires and ocean productivity and warmth from NASA satellites, over Peru.

The interactive map needs JavaScript; the layer list and sources are below.

Layers 2

Habitat condition

Latest available

NASA GIBS / EOSDIS · ASTER GDEM (METI, NASA) · Blue Marble (NASA) · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · Natural Earth

Loading the latest NASA imagery.

Drag to move. Ctrl or ⌘ and scroll, pinch or the buttons to zoom; hover for the values under the pointer; reset returns to the region.

Habitat condition, framed on Peru.Satellite and model products as NASA publishes them, each with its own date. They are indicators, not assessments of any place.

Data: NASA GIBS · ASTER GDEM · Blue Marble · © OpenStreetMap contributors · Natural Earth · NASA EONETSources and licences

  • We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • MODIS land products (vegetation indices, gross primary production, land cover), NASA LP DAAC and LANCE; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • NASA Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS), VIIRS 375 m active fire product, NASA LANCE; vector tiles via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • GHRSST Level 4 MUR analyses, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory; distributed by the NASA Physical Oceanography DAAC (PO.DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • MODIS Aqua ocean colour, NASA Ocean Biology Processing Group; distributed by the NASA Ocean Biology DAAC (OB.DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • VIIRS near-real-time products (flood, land surface temperature, snow cover, corrected reflectance), NASA LANCE; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • ASTER GDEM is a product of METI and NASA (ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003, NASA LP DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). Cite as: NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Spacesystems and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (2019). ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003. doi:10.5067/ASTER/ASTGTM.003. NASA open data
  • Made with Natural Earth. Free vector and raster map data @ naturalearthdata.com. Public domain
  • © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), via NASA GIBS (coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). ODbL
  • Blue Marble, NASA Earth Observatory; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • Context on the globe and flat map: coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names from NASA GIBS reference layers (OpenStreetMap data, ODbL, © OpenStreetMap contributors); Blue Marble imagery as an optional base; 3D terrain and the elevation read-out from the ASTER GDEM elevation colour index (5 m to 200 m classes, exaggerated for legibility). Boundaries are drawn as published and imply no position on any territory.
  • Globe: MapLibre GL JS 6.9.1, BSD-3-Clause, © MapLibre contributors.
  • Live events: NASA Earth Observatory Natural Event Tracker (EONET); events are indicative and keep their original source links.
  • NASA GIBS: We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS).
  • Optional layers (5 sources in the layer list: live, forecast, observed and context) print their provider credit on the map and here when switched on; forecasts are model output and derived indices are estimates.

Layers and dates

  • Enhanced vegetation index, rolling 8 days: MODIS Terra EVI, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026
  • Active fires and thermal anomalies: VIIRS NOAA-20 375 m (FIRMS), NASA LANCE FIRMS · 13 Oct 2026
  • Land cover type (IGBP), yearly: MODIS Terra and Aqua land cover (MCD12Q1), NASA LP DAAC · 2024
  • Gross primary production, 8-day total: MODIS Aqua GPP (MYD17), NASA LP DAAC · 30 Sep 2026
  • Sea surface temperature anomaly: GHRSST MUR25, NASA JPL PO.DAAC · 12 Oct 2026
  • Ocean chlorophyll-a concentration: MODIS Aqua ocean colour, NASA OB.DAAC · 12 Oct 2026
  • True colour: VIIRS NOAA-20 corrected reflectance, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026

03How learning runs

How learning runs, as a process you can run

Select a scenario and press Play: course, pathway, practice, faculty, cells and record.

04What is changing

What is changing, with standards and evidence

Climate and nature governance: frontier methods

The methods, data, tools and studies that changed climate and nature governance between 2024 and 2026, taught by reproducing them on open data.

Level
L3 Advanced
Study time
about 28 hours (planning estimate)
Status
Planned
Prerequisites
Climate and nature governance: foundations and practice; Working knowledge of a scripting language (Python or R) for the labs

Why now

Adaptation indicators and finance goals define how adaptation progress and gaps will be tracked in national planning. COP30 Presidency (Brazil), Normative, 1 July 2026

Learning outcomes

  1. Explain what changed in climate and nature governance since 2024 and cite the studies, data or rules behind each change
  2. Reproduce COP30 called for tripling adaptation finance by 2035 on open data and state the uncertainty of the result
  3. Evaluate a 2024 to 2026 study: its question, data, method, limits and what it changes for practice
  4. Design an analysis that combines a frontier method with the faculty's instruments, and justify each choice

Modules

  1. COP30 called for tripling adaptation finance by 2035
    • The COP30 Mutirao decision calls for roughly tripling adaptation finance by 2035, adopts the Belem Adaptation Indicators under the Global Goal on Adaptation, sets up a Global Implementation Accelerator and creates a just transition framework.
    • Adaptation indicators and finance goals define how adaptation progress and gaps will be tracked in national planning.
    • COP30 Presidency (Brazil), 1 July 2026
  2. International Court of Justice advises on state climate obligations
    • In its advisory opinion, the Court said states must act with due diligence and cooperate to protect the climate system, with obligations that include the 1.5 degree goal.
    • The opinion is not binding but shapes climate litigation, national target setting and how governments assess legal exposure.
    • International Court of Justice, 23 July 2025
  3. Biodiversity COP agreed finance strategy and monitoring framework
    • The resumed COP16 in Rome agreed a path to mobilise at least USD 200 billion a year for biodiversity by 2030, a resource mobilisation strategy, a roadmap for the financial mechanism and the full monitoring framework for the Kunming-Montreal targets.
    • Agreed indicators and finance targets set the yardsticks against which national nature commitments and their gaps will be judged.
    • Convention on Biological Diversity, 27 February 2025
  4. Reproduction lab
    • Extend the discipline's method with one frontier method and compare its results
    • State the uncertainty and the limits of the result
    • Peer review against a shared checklist
  5. Technology that helps and the risks it carries
    • Machine learning forecasting, carbon dioxide removal and climate data infrastructure.
    • The governance of solar radiation modification and the integrity of carbon removal.

Labs with Academy tools

Nexus Standards

Teaches

  • NRS-X1 Climate change risk and adaptation
  • NRS-N5 Biodiversity and nature risk and resilience
  • NRS-H105 Hazard family: Climate intervention technologies
  • NRS-M12 Method fabric: Policy, regulation and governance
  • NRS-M17 Method fabric: Climate, nature and biodiversity

Relies on

  • NS-1 The UNI and the artefact catalogue
  • NS-16 UNI application profile (how articles, documents, code, data, APIs and interfaces carry the UNI)
  • NRS-C1 Risk vocabulary and ontology
  • NRS-C2 Risk assessment method
  • NRS-C3 Hazard, exposure, vulnerability and capacity data
  • NRS-C4 Risk data model, identifiers and exchange
  • NRS-C7 Early warning, triggers and anticipatory action
  • NRS-C8 Evidence, uncertainty and provenance

Assessment

  • 50%Method reproductionReproduce one frontier method on open data and state the uncertainty of the result
  • 30%Study reviewA critical review of a 2024 to 2026 study: question, data, method, limits, what it changes
  • 20%Peer reviewReview two other learners' reproductions against a shared checklist

Delivery

  • Self-paced online, with the labs in the browser
  • Cohort study over six to eight weeks, with a weekly lab review
  • Co-delivered with a partner institution, inside its own courses

Partner on this course

  • Co-teach a module and bring a current case from your work
  • Host a cohort for your learners, with your own schedule and review
  • Contribute a lab: a dataset your institution publishes openly, or a model
  • Review the course content and its references before it opens
  • Translate the course and adapt its cases to your region

How institutions and experts take part

In the Academy LMS

Course on the learning platform
Expert, 5 topics
Cohort group
A community group for each cohort of learners
Achievement
Recorded on completion of the assessed work

References

  1. COP30 Presidency (Brazil), Normative, 1 July 2026
  2. International Court of Justice, Obligations of States in respect of Climate Change, 23 July 2025
  3. Convention on Biological Diversity, COP 16 has fulfilled its promise to the world, 27 February 2025
  4. UNEP, Adaptation Gap Report 2024, 2024
  5. IPCC, Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, 2022
  6. Jordan and others, Emergence of polycentric climate governance and its future prospects, 2015
05Take part

Take part in the work

Start from who you are.

06Questions

Questions, answers and key terms

Is the course free?
Yes. Every course and learning material of Risk Academy, led by the Nexus Consortium, is free to study, self-paced or with a cohort. Ordinary participation has no fee; paid work, internships and fellowships are separate arrangements.
What does completing a course give me?
A completion record: the course, its version, the date and what was assessed, private by default and shared by you. It stacks into discipline, department and programme achievements. A record states what was studied and assessed and does not certify competence; it is not a licence, a professional title or an employment status.
Where do the data and the places come from?
Every faculty teaches on a twin of a real place built from open data; each layer carries its provider, licence and date, and every result on the Academy states its source. Maps and figures are indicators for teaching, never an assessment of a place.
How do I take part beyond the course?
Form a competence cell of three to seven people, study a shared pathway, take a supervised assignment in the National Working Groups, or bring a cohort from your institution. For organisations.

Key terms

Term

Nationally determined contribution

A country's climate action plan under the Paris Agreement.

Term

National adaptation plan

A process for identifying medium- and long-term adaptation needs and integrating them into planning.

Term

Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework

The global framework of goals and targets for biodiversity agreed in 2022.

Term

Adaptation pathway

A sequence of adaptation actions with decision points as conditions change.

ReportsContribute

Contribute evidence from this page.

Reports is the Consortium's quarterly publication. What you know about this subject can become evidence, a case or a correction in the next edition, credited to you and published under CC BY 4.0 where it is your own work.

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