− Allocation & Access in ESG–Agency studies is broadly seen as the process of sharing resources among multiple users, where efficiency and equity are the analytical tools for allocation and access, respectively. − Within ESG–Agency scholarship, the allocation of and access to water, food, land, and forest systems is studied widely, but is especially focused on developing countries in Asia, Africa, and South America. − Opportunities for future research include furthering understanding the trade-offs and synergies in conservation policies and potential conflicts with ownership and livelihoods, the role of gender in resource management (especially water resources), evaluating the types of power wielded in this area, and understanding how people acquire it.

− Agency is one of five core analytical problems in the Earth System Governance (ESG) Project’s research framework, which offers a unique approach to the study of environmental governance. − Agency in Earth System Governance draws lessons from ESG–Agency research through a systematic review of 322 peer-reviewed journal articles published between 2008 and 2016 and contained in the ESG–Agency Harvesting Database.− ESG–Agency research draws on diverse disciplinary perspectives with distinct clusters of scholars rooted in the fields of global environmental politics, policy studies, and socio-ecological systems. − Collectively, the chapters in Agency in Earth System Governance provide an accessible synthesis of some of the field’s major questions and debates and a state-of-the-art understanding of how diverse actors engage with and exercise authority in environmental governance.

− ESG-Agency scholarship most commonly focuses on the global arena as well as Asia and Europe, with critical geographic gaps in Africa and the Middle East.− Climate change is the dominant issue studied in ESG-Agency research, followed by forests and fresh water. − To address the geographic imbalance in ESG-Agency research, scholars need to develop research projects and collaborations in understudied regions while also recruiting and supporting scholars in those regions to engage with this research agenda.