Prof. Dr. Dirk Messner is the director of the Institute for Environment and Human Security of United Nations University (UNU-EHS). He is also the Co-Director of the “Käte Hamburger Kolleg / Centre for Global Cooperation Research” at the University of Duisburg-Essen. He is an internationally recognized expert on the topics of global change, digitalization, and sustainable development, transformation towards the decarbonization of the global economy, global governance and evolution of human cooperation. Prior to joining UNU-EHS, Prof. Messner led the “German Development Institute” since 2003. He is the author or co-author of more than 300 publications. Currently he is one of the coordinators of “The World in 2050”, a global research consortium on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.