The conference theme of Allocation and Access in a Warming and Increasingly Unequal World speaks to the urgency for quality deliberations on how the scientific community can contribute to the growing challenges of our time through our science, activism and policy engagement. The semi-plenaries of the 2017 Lund Conference on Earth System Governance offer some great opportunities to engage, explore and move forward as a community. We are happy to welcome speakers from academia, policy making and activism.