The EPOC project explores how global environmental governance is influenced by the Covid-19 pandemic and how it is reimagined and rearranged in its aftermath. It focuses on the United Nations (UN) High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) and its efforts to implement the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Set up as a transdisciplinary, collaborative research project with colleagues in Sweden, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, EPOC maps the changes in practices, institutional architectures and policy discourses since the start of the pandemic. It focuses specifically on exploring how future imaginaries emerge and shape global environmental politics and governance in the post-pandemic world. 

In the EPOC project, Elise is leading work on mapping the changes taking place in the UN’s environmental and sustainability governance architecture, specifically the HLPF and institutions related to the SDGs as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.  

EPOC is funded by the Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development (FORMAS).