CGC's Maja Groff co-authors award-winning book on eco-social contracts

Eco-Social Contracts for Sustainable and Just Futures, a volume on eco-social contracts and global governance, has received a double distinction at the 2026 Nautilus Book Awards — a recognition that proposals once considered at the margins of international policy debate are attracting broader attention.

Eco-Social Contracts for Sustainable and Just Futures: Mobilising Collective Power to Deal with the 21st Century Polycrisis was awarded a Gold Medal in the category World Cultures' Transformational Growth & Development and a Special Honors distinction for Transformative Systems Vision at this year's Nautilus Book Awards, announced on 27 May 2026. Chapter 8 of the volume was co-authored by Maja Groff, Executive Director of the Climate Governance Commission (CGC), together with Georgios Kostakos and Patrick Huntjens.

The chapter advances a series of concrete proposals for reforming the international governance architecture in response to the compounding environmental and social crises of the twenty-first century. These range from strengthening the role of international courts in adjudicating environmental harm, to embedding Earth Trusteeship and the rights of nature in international law, to updating the UN Charter itself to include explicit environmental obligations. The full arguments are set out in a previous CGC article published following the book's launch at the London School of Economics in February 2026.

The award is a welcome signal that the case for transformative, justice-oriented approaches to global governance is gaining traction. The proposals advanced in the chapter are closely aligned with the work of CGC and MEGA.