Members of the Project on Environmental Change in the Research Unit: Law, Justice and Sustainability focus their research on the interface between  environmentalsustainability, environmental justice, environmental governance and the law. Geographically, the research in this project covers aspects of international, African regional and South African environmental law and governance.  Thematically, the focus includes amongst others:

• Access to, and the use of urban, rural and agricultural land;
• The Anthropocene;
• Climate change mitigation, adaptation and resilience;
• Ecosystem services;
• Energy reform;
• Environmental compliance and enforcement;
• Environmental governance and cooperative governance;
• Environmental rights;
• Environmental justice;
• Linkages between administrative law and sound environmental governance;
• Mining and extractive industries;
• Natural resource and biodiversity conservation;
• Pollution control;
• Sustainable cities and urban development;
• The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); and
• Water, energy and food security.

The numerous books, chapters, journal articles and research reports produced in the cadre of this project deal with arange of matters characteristic of an era of environmental change, natural resource depletion and the need for Earth system and human resilience.  The research methodologies andtechniques of the participants range from doctrinal legal research and comparative legal studies, to inter-disciplinary and multidisciplinary case study-based inquiries.