International organisations in global sustainability transitions

This viewpoint identifies two widely neglected parallels between scholarship on international organisations (IOs) and sustainability transitions research. We contend that IO scholarship can push sustainability transitions research along these two parallels by elaborating on IOs as global sustainability actors. Specifically, IO research offers not only a fuller understanding of the transnational dynamics of incumbency but also a more nuanced understanding of non-incumbent actor roles. In the next decade, scholars working on sustainability transitions and those studying IOs should thus join forces to examine how powerful transnational actors shape processes of transformative global change.