Ecological and socioecological governance in the UN and the EU

To achieve the common goal of securing the Earth as a just and safe place for humans to live and to preserve nature for future generations to come, acting is crucial, and governance is a precondition for coordinated action. This chapter critically compares and reflects on structural and procedural aspects of governance in the UN and the EU and, furthermore, on differing paradigms regarding solutions pertaining to climate change, environment, and socioecological issues. First, the chapter presents different ideal types of structural and procedural government and governance, before analyzing UN and EU government/governance by applying this typology as a theoretical lens. Second, it highlights the compositions of different paradigms for strategies and solutions that are underlying policies, responses, and governance in the UN and the EU: market-based technological and socioecological modernization. Third, it presents paradigms that are situated at the margin of and conflicting with hegemonic paradigms: technological escapist and quick fix, nationalist, and socioecological transformative.