Karin Bäckstrand is a professor in Environmental Social Science at the Department of Political Science at Stockholm University, who has written extensively global environmental politics, non-state actors in climate change diplomacy after the Paris Agreement, the politics and implementation of the UN’s sustainable development goals and Agenda 2030, and the democratic legitimacy of global governance. She is associate Senior at Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance, Canberra University, Australia and a board member of the National Committee, Global Environmental Change, at The Royal Swedish Academy of Science.

Additionally, she was a member of the Swedish Climate Policy Council 2018-2022. She is the principal investigator for the project Transformative partnerships for sustainable development and participates in Climate ethics and future generations.

Previously, Karin was professor at the Department of Political Science, Lund University (2012-2014), Visiting Professor, Department of Political Science and International Relations, University of Oxford (2013), Wallenberg Postdoctoral Fellow on Environment and Sustainability, Laboratory for Energy and Environment, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2002-2004). advises the ICSU Earth System Governance project.