Much of the literature on “sustainable development” focuses on the environmental harms of development -- that is, of market failure -- and invokes government policy as the solution. Yet government is also an imperfect human institution which can cause environmental harms. The enactment of NEPA recognized this truth. Sustainable development will not succeed without attention to the institutions on which it depends. This year’s colloquium will focus on how institutions such as government (at the local, national, and international levels) also play a role in causing environmental problems, and on how these institutions can be improved to generate durable environmental solutions. We will address such topics as perverse government subsidies, waste of public resources, insecure property rights, regulatory federalism, side effects of government regulatory policies, and efforts to reform or create new institutional arrangements to promote environmental sustainability. 

• What roles do -- and should -- institutions play in environmental sustainability?
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• How can global environmental institutions best achieve sustainable governance?
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• How does the level of institutional authority (e.g., local, state, federal, global) affect the sustainability of governance?
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• How can government and civil society groups (business, environmental groups, communities, and the general public) develop institutions to achieve sustainable governance?
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• How should government make sustainable policy decisions?
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• How should we design a research agenda for the future? 

Each year Duke University’s Colloquium on Environmental Law and Institutions addresses the most important and complex challenges in environmental science, social science, law and policy. Past topics have included non-equilibrium ecology, comparative risk analysis in a progressive republic, the puzzle of environmental politics, and global markets for global commons. 
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Agenda