LIECHTENSTEIN INSTITUTE FOR STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT
Time is of the essence for sustainable development and resilience: we make the rapid deployment of regenerative infrastructure work.
ACTIVITIES
We are active in four programmatic modes:
Consulting
Research
Finance
Academy
EXPERTISE
WHO WE ARE
We at Liechtenstein Institute for Strategic Development help prepare private and public entities to become more resilient to climatic, energetic and economic changes. We guide their transformation in a manner, which increases both the ecological and economic value of their infrastructure to mitigate against and adapt to climate change. We develop urban and regional energy master plans and provide sustainability advice on urban development projects. A particularly important aspect of our work is geared towards effective strategic and operational large-scale urban development advice.
MISSION
We formed in response to a global recognition that major planetary indicators point not only to a necessary transformation in human settlement development and search for rapid strategies in fighting climate change tipping points and biodiversity collapse but also to the need to strengthen factors critical for human civilisation, its prosperity, innovation and development.
We recognise that isolated sustainable approaches are prone to slow uptake, errors and even failure. It pursues Rapid Regenerative Infrastructure Deployment (RRID) by integrating science, engineering, economics and finance with city, regional and infrastructure design, community planning and development.
FOR WHOM
We work for cities, towns, regional organisations, international aid bodies and private companies focused on the business of sustainable urban and regional development. Each project, every initiative is pursued with meticulous care, energy and attention to the need of client organisations, companies and communities. We do not apply standard techniques: each approach is custom tailored to specific needs and objectives, using global best practice and expertise.
Local and international experts form our core, provide guidance and leadership. They work together in sourcing and managing projects, based on tailored agreements. Our experts have worked with regions, cities and towns, local, state and national governments, the IEA, IPCC, UNDP, UNECE, UN Habitat and a number of other international organisations.
LATEST NEWS
Beyond Paris: emergency imperatives for global policy and local action
New article publication
SPRINGER NATURE
Sustainable Earth Reviews,Vol. 8, article number 2, (2025)
by Prof. Peter Droege
International climate negotiations have not achieved their objectives of halting or even slowing global heating. Current developments in deglaciation, temperature rise and ocean acidification exceed the projected trajectories, taking much of the scientific community by surprise. The policy and action frameworks established to confront the challenge do not match its enormity, nor the speed in which it unfolds.
It is time to recognize that the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement aim of limiting heating by the year 2100 to 2.0, and ideally 1.5 °C above pre-industrial temperature levels cannot be met under current dynamics. Global temperatures have passed the 1.5 °C threshold in 2023—and continue beyond it since, at an accelerating rate, and without significantly effective corrective action. This article outlines reasons for this, and ten key policy directions for moving forward. These are founded on the recognition that not individual, narrowly conceived efforts promise success, but only a combination of mutually reinforcing measures can help the recovery of a healthy biosphere. It promises to halt further decline and arrive at climate stabilization. Only a healthy biosphere is capable of stabilizing the global climate. All we can do—and everything we must do—is assist the process of regenerating and safeguarding this capacity.
System Change Now: Climate, Nature, Technology and Money.
World Systemic Forum Feature 2025
Watch as LISD hosts the inaugural WSF Feature 2025 at the University of Liechtenstein
System Change Now: Climate, Nature, Technology and Money.
World Systemic Forum Feature 2025
Friday, 17.01.2025,
13.30 – 16.30 CET
University Liechtenstein
‘What systemic changes are needed in the economic, monetary and financial system to reverse the negative developments of the last 50 years for the environment and climate stability over the next 50 years? The question is not academic: while measures are in principle of a project nature, the fundamental existential dynamic that needs to be halted and reversed is of a decidedly systemic nature. Is the monetary system even capable of this?
In order to explore these questions and articulate principles for a more systemically sustainable monetary and financial system, a group of experienced minds from related fields are coming together at the University of Liechtenstein for a public roundtable. It is one of the roundtables that will be held in the run-up to the World Systemic Forum of Rudi Hilti’s System Change Foundation on January 18, 2025. It is actively supported by Prof. Peter Droege, who says: “Sustainability Finance, i.e. using money in a regenerative and climate-stabilizing way, should be called SDG Zero: fundamental financial system dynamics drive environmental change. Yet this is not one of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.”
https://www.uni.li/de/alle-veranstaltungen/@@event_detail/72971.67
Net-negative by 2050 is feasible
We have long called for abandoning ‘Net-zero by 2050’ as a dangerously false goal. Fortescue Metals Group and its Chair Andrew Forrest are to be applauded and followed – for having the clarity of view and plan, readiness and action to call global climate neutrality and net-zero targets by 2050 a ‘proven fantasy’ – and to promote absolute zero emissions globally by 2040 instead. Fortescue, the world fourth largest mining company is determined to be 100% fossil-fuel free by 2030. This implies that our global goal of being net-negative by 2050 is now seen as feasible by the successful leader of one of the world’s hardest-to-abate industrial sectors.
Fortescue 6MW EV charger
Fortescue Zero & Downer Battery Electric Locomotive
We do not hold any interest or stake in Fortescue Metals Group.
MEDIA
