IHDP was founded in 1990 by the International Social Science Council (ISSC) under the name Human Dimensions Programme (HDP). Together with the International Council for Science (ICSU) the ISSC established it under its permanent name International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP) in 1996. Ten years later, the United Nations University joined as an institutional sponsor and host, and the Secretariat subsequently moved from the University of Bonn to the UN Campus where it had its offices at the "Langer Eugen" office building, the former home of the "Abgeordnetenhaus" of the German Bundestag, until its closure in June 2014.

IHDP was an interdisciplinary science programme that worked toward a better understanding of human interaction with and within their natural environment. The programme facilitated dialogue between science and policy to ensure that research results fed into policy-planning and law-making processes, and offered education and training to, what were, future leaders in the field.