The 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg is remembered mainly for the promotion of a novel form of global governance: the so-called ‘partnerships for sustainable development’. This book provides a first authoritative assessment of partnerships for sustainable development, ten years after the Johannesburg Summit.

The extensive research builds on an exclusive Global Sustainability Partnerships Database and a series of in-depth qualitative case studies. Key questions studied in this book include the overall effectiveness and influence of partnerships, their geographical, functional and organizational scope, and their legitimacy.

This unique book systematically investigates the questions of emergence, influence and legitimacy, which will prove invaluable for scholars and students interested in global environmental governance and sustainability, public–private partnerships, sustainability at the UN level and environmental governance beyond international agreements and policies.