Frank Biermann

Last updated
Frank Biermann
Born1967
NationalityGerman
OccupationUniversity professor
Known forGlobal environmental and sustainability politics; pioneer of earth system governance paradigm
Awards Volvo Environment Prize (2024) [1]
Website https://www.frankbiermann.org/

Frank Biermann (born 1967) is a German political scientist and professor at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. His research interests are in "global institutions and organisations in the sustainability domain". [2] He was the founder in 2006 and first chair (for ten years) of the Earth System Governance Project. [3] [4] From 2018 until 2024 he directed a 2.5-million EUR research programme on the steering effects of the Sustainable Development Goals. [5] [6] This was funded through a European Research Council Advanced Grant.

Contents

Biermann frequently speaks with journalists about his work. [7] They use the content from these interviews for their articles, for example in CNN, [8] BBC News, [9] and Time magazine. [10]

He has received several awards, for example the Volvo Environment Prize in 2024 for "defining new pathways for international environmental governance in a period of global change", [1] and in 2021 the Distinguished Scholar Award in Environmental Studies by the International Studies Association. [3] Biermann is an elected Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science. [11]

Education

Biermann received a master’s degree in Political Science in 1993 from Free University of Berlin (Freie Universität Berlin), followed by a PhD in political science from the same university in 1997. His PhD thesis won the Joachim Tiburtius Prize, a prize that is awarded annually for the three best doctoral dissertations of the three Berlin universities. [12] In 1998, he was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship at the Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University. [13]

He achieved the post-doctoral degree of habilitation in political science in 2001 also from Freie Universität Berlin. [13] He received a master's degree in International Law (with distinction) by the University of Aberdeen in 1994. [13]

Career

Frank Biermann opening the 2018 Utrecht Conference on Earth System Governance Frank Biermann opening the 2018 Utrecht Conference on Earth System Governance.jpg
Frank Biermann opening the 2018 Utrecht Conference on Earth System Governance

In 2003, Biermann was appointed as professor of Political Science and of Environmental Policy Analysis at VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands. From 2003 to 2015, Biermann was head of the Department of Environmental Policy Analysis at the same university. [2] During this time, from 2007-2014, he was director of the Netherlands Research School for Socio-Economic and Natural Sciences of the Environment, a national alliance of 11 institutes. [13] [15]

Since late 2015, Frank Biermann is a research professor of Global Sustainability Governance with the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. [2]

Biermann is also a member of the Science Advisory Council of the Stockholm Environment Institute [16] and an affiliate of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy’s Initiative on Environment and Sustainability at the National University of Singapore. [17] He also chairs the Board of Trustees of the Earth System Governance Foundation. [18]

Research

Biermann’s research and publications have contributed to several areas of global sustainability policy and governance. This includes work on the effectiveness and reform of international organizations and bureaucracies, the role of multilateral treaty regimes, the protection of climate refugees, the impacts of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the politics of science, novel conceptualizations of planetary justice, climate policy and the restrictive governance of climate engineering, and fragmented architectures of global governance. [19]

Biermann pioneered the earth system governance paradigm in global change research in 2005 and was the founder and first chair (2008-2018) of the Earth System Governance Project, a global research network of sustainability scholars. From 2018 until 2024 he directed a 2.5-million EUR research programme on the steering effects of the SDGs. [5] [6]

Advocacy and outreach

Frank Biermann has regularly engaged in public debates about reforming global sustainability governance, and is frequently contacted by journalists who use the content from these interviews for their articles. [7] For example, Biermann has called for the establishment of a World Environment Organization in 2000 [20] and the negotiation of an International Agreement on Protecting Climate Refugees in 2010. [21] He has spoken in the United Nations General Assembly in 2014 during an Interactive Dialogue on Harmony with Nature. [22] [23] This fed into the Harmony with Nature report of the Secretary-General of the UN. [24]

Ever since the start of the Sustainable Development Goals process in 2015, Biermann has spoken in various fora about reforming these global goals, based on relevant research projects which he has been leading. An example of such a forum is the Global Citizen and Youth Empowerment System Conference at the United Nations headquarters in New York in 2024. [25] He has also published with colleagues a number of global assessments and policy proposals on the SDGs, for example in the academic journals Nature Sustainability [26] and Science. [27]

Regarding climate engineering, Biermann states that "I increasingly fear that the slow pace of global climate policies will lead to dangerous calls for reckless climate engineering or geoengineering". [28] For this reason, he together with colleagues, has developed an initiative for an International Non-Use Agreement on Solar Geoengineering which was launched in January 2022 with an open letter. [29] This letter in support of such a non-use agreement has been signed by over 500 scientists from dozens of countries, and endorsed by about 2000 civil society organisations (as of 2024). [30] The goal of the letter was to make it clear "that the academic community didn’t want governments to develop solar geoengineering technologies" according to reporting in Time magazine which quoted Frank Biermann. [10] He also said about this letter: "it’s a sign that anti-geoengineering scientists are getting more organized". [10] On the same topic, in a CNN article in 2023, Frank Biermann is quoted as follows about solar geoengineering: “It’s very risky. It cannot be governed. It’s unethical,” and “And it is one of the biggest dangers in the current climate policies.” [8] A BBC News article in the same year quoted him as saying "If the majority of countries object to the deployment… the political cost for any country to do it unilaterally is extremely high." [9]

Editorships

Biermann is the founding editor of the Elsevier journal Earth System Governance, an open access journal launched in 2009. [31] This journal is highly ranked in the fields of international relations (fifth rank out of 159 journals), political science (tenth out of 315), and environmental policy (fifth out of 176). [32] Data from the journal's publisher Elsevier shows that the journal has a CiteScore of 9.0 and an Impact Factor of 4.4 (as of 2024). [33] In the SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) indicator this journal appears as a Q1 journal (first quartile) in various disciplines. [34]

He also edits three ongoing book series:

Awards

Publications

Biermann has authored, edited or co-edited 19 books and published over 200 articles in peer-reviewed journals and academic books. [42] [19] His h-index as calculated in Google Scholar is 80. [19] The h-index is an author-level metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications. [43] [44]

Selected books where Biermann was sole author or co-editor include:

Related Research Articles

Sustainable development is an approach to growth and human development that aims to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The aim is to have a society where living conditions and resources meet human needs without undermining planetary integrity. Sustainable development aims to balance the needs of the economy, environment, and social well-being. The Brundtland Report in 1987 helped to make the concept of sustainable development better known.

Climate engineering is an umbrella term for both carbon dioxide removal and solar radiation modification, when applied at a planetary scale. However, these two processes have very different characteristics. For this reason, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change no longer uses this overarching term. Carbon dioxide removal approaches are part of climate change mitigation. Solar radiation modification is reflecting some sunlight back to space. Some publications place passive radiative cooling into the climate engineering category. This technology increases the Earth's thermal emittance. The media tends to use climate engineering also for other technologies such as glacier stabilization, ocean liming, and iron fertilization of oceans. The latter would modify carbon sequestration processes that take place in oceans.

Global governance refers to institutions that coordinate the behavior of transnational actors, facilitate cooperation, resolve disputes, and alleviate collective action problems. Global governance broadly entails making, monitoring, and enforcing rules. Within global governance, a variety of types of actors – not just states – exercise power. Governance is thus broader than government.

This is a list of climate change topics.

Sustainability science first emerged in the 1980s and has become a new academic discipline. Similar to agricultural science or health science, it is an applied science defined by the practical problems it addresses. Sustainability science focuses on issues relating to sustainability and sustainable development as core parts of its subject matter. It is "defined by the problems it addresses rather than by the disciplines it employs" and "serves the need for advancing both knowledge and action by creating a dynamic bridge between the two".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sustainability</span> Societal goal and normative concept

Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long period of time. Definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Sustainability usually has three dimensions : environmental, economic, and social. Many definitions emphasize the environmental dimension. This can include addressing key environmental problems, including climate change and biodiversity loss. The idea of sustainability can guide decisions at the global, national, organizational, and individual levels. A related concept is that of sustainable development, and the terms are often used to mean the same thing. UNESCO distinguishes the two like this: "Sustainability is often thought of as a long-term goal, while sustainable development refers to the many processes and pathways to achieve it."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canadian Science Publishing</span>

Canadian Science Publishing (CSP) is Canada's largest publisher of international scientific journals. It started in 1929 as the NRC Research Press, part of the National Research Council (NRC). In 2010, the organization spun off from NRC and was incorporated as a not-for-profit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solar radiation modification</span> Approaches to limit global warming by increasing the reflection of sunlight back to space

Solar radiation modification (SRM), also known as solar radiation management, or solar geoengineering, refers to a range of approaches to limit global warming by increasing the amount of sunlight that the atmosphere reflects back to space or by reducing the trapping of outgoing thermal radiation. Among the multiple potential approaches, stratospheric aerosol injection is the most-studied, followed by marine cloud brightening. SRM could be a temporary measure to limit climate-change impacts while greenhouse gas emissions are reduced and carbon dioxide is removed, but would not be a substitute for reducing emissions. SRM is a form of climate engineering.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Earth System Governance Project</span> Social science research programme

The Earth System Governance Project is a research network that builds on the work from about a dozen research centers and hundreds of researchers studying earth system governance. It is a long-term, interdisciplinary social science research alliance. Its origins are an international program called the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change. The ESG Project started in January 2009. Over time, it has evolved into a broader research alliance that builds on an international network of research centers, lead faculty and research fellows. It is now the largest social science research network in the area of governance and global environmental change.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Planetary boundaries</span> Limits not to be exceeded if humanity wants to survive in a safe ecosystem

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The International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP) was a research programme that studied the human and societal aspects of the phenomenon of global change.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Earth system governance</span> Field of scholarly inquiry in the social sciences

Earth system governance is a broad area of scholarly inquiry that builds on earlier notions of environmental policy and nature conservation, but puts these into the broader context of human-induced transformations of the entire earth system. The integrative paradigm of earth system governance (ESG) has evolved into an active research area that brings together a variety of disciplines including political science, sociology, economics, ecology, policy studies, geography, sustainability science, and law.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sustainable Development Goals</span> United Nations goals for people for 2030

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Planetary health is a multi- and transdisciplinary research paradigm, a new science for exceptional action, and a global movement. Planetary health refers to "the health of human civilization and the state of the natural systems on which it depends". In 2015, the Rockefeller Foundation–Lancet Commission on Planetary Health launched the concept which is currently being developed towards a new health science with over 25 areas of expertise.

Mark G. Lawrence is an American atmospheric scientist whose research focuses on a range of sustainable development topics at the science policy and science-society interface. He is scientific director at the Research Institute for Sustainability (RIFS) in Potsdam (former Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies in Potsdam.

Michele Betsill is an American political scientist. She is a professor of political science at Colorado State University, where she has also been the chair of the department. She studies climate change and sustainability policies, with a particular focus on how non-governmental actors and sub-national governments respond to climate change. She is a co-founder of the Earth System Governance Project.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joyeeta Gupta</span> Environmental scientist and academic

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aliyu Salisu Barau</span> Nigerian academic

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "2024 Laureate: Frank Biermann". Volvo Environment Prize. Retrieved 2024-09-23.
  2. 1 2 3 "Utrecht University staff" . Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  3. 1 2 3 "Frank Biermann receives lifetime achievement Distinguished Scholar Award - News - Utrecht University". www.uu.nl. 2021-04-09. Retrieved 2024-07-26.
  4. ↑ "History of the ESG Project". Earth System Governance Project. Retrieved 2024-09-14.
  5. 1 2 3 "Frank Biermann awarded ERC Advanced Grant for SDG research - News - Utrecht University". www.uu.nl. 2018-04-06. Retrieved 2024-07-26.
  6. 1 2 "GLOBALGOALS – Research for Sustainability" . Retrieved 2024-07-26.
  7. 1 2 "In the Media". Personal website of Frank Biermann. Retrieved 2024-07-26.
  8. 1 2 Paddison, Laura (2023). "This controversial climate solution could be exactly what the planet needs. Or it could be a colossal disaster". CNN. Retrieved 2024-07-29.
  9. 1 2 Bourke, India (11 October 2023). "To avert climate disaster, what if one rogue nation dimmed the Sun?". BBC news. Retrieved 2024-07-26.
  10. 1 2 3 Garza, Alejandro de la (2023-03-17). "A Controversial Technology Is Creating an Unprecedented Rift Among Climate Scientists". TIME. Retrieved 2024-07-26.
  11. 1 2 "Frank Biermann, Author at World Academy of Art and Science". World Academy of Art and Science. Retrieved 2024-08-05.
  12. ↑ "Tiburtius-Preis - Preis der Berliner Hochschulen". www.fu-berlin.de (in German). 2005-09-30. Retrieved 2024-08-10.
  13. 1 2 3 4 "About". Personal website of Frank Biermann. Retrieved 2024-07-26.
  14. ↑ "2018 Utrecht Conference on Earth System Governance". Earth System Governance Project. Retrieved 2024-07-22.
  15. ↑ "Partner institutes & participating research groups", SENSE website. Accessed: 29 July 2024.
  16. ↑ "Science Advisory Council". SEI. Retrieved 2024-07-29.
  17. ↑ "Utrecht University staff, ancillary activities" . Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  18. ↑ "Earth System Governance Foundation". Earth System Governance Project. Retrieved 2024-09-12.
  19. 1 2 3 "Google Scholar results for Frank Biermann". scholar.google.com. Retrieved 2024-07-26.
  20. ↑ Biermann, Frank (2000). "The Case for a World Environment Organization". Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development. 42 (9): 22–31. Bibcode:2000ESPSD..42i..22B. doi:10.1080/00139150009605762. ISSN   0013-9157.
  21. ↑ Biermann, Frank; Boas, Ingrid (2010). "Preparing for a Warmer World: Towards a Global Governance System to Protect Climate Refugees". Global Environmental Politics. 10 (1): 60–88. doi:10.1162/glep.2010.10.1.60. ISSN   1526-3800.
  22. ↑ Earth System Governance TV (2014-10-23). Frank Biermann gives plenary presentation in UN General Assembly April 22, 2014 . Retrieved 2024-07-26– via YouTube.
  23. ↑ Biermann, F. (2914) “Governance in the Anthropocene: Towards Planetary Stewardship” Presentation at the 4th Interactive Dialogue of the United Nations General Assembly on Harmony with Nature New York City, New York, 22 April 2014
  24. ↑ UNGA – United Nations General Assembly (2014) Harmony with Nature. Report of the Secretary-General . United Nations Doc. A/69/322 of 18 August 2014.
  25. ↑ "GloCha UN HQ NY Conference 2024 – Celebrating the Future with Culture, Youth, Digital Innovation & Localization of SDGs – Welcome to GloCha" . Retrieved 2024-09-12.
  26. ↑ Biermann, Frank; Hickmann, Thomas; Sénit, Carole-Anne; Beisheim, Marianne; Bernstein, Steven; Chasek, Pamela; Grob, Leonie; Kim, Rakhyun E.; Kotzé, Louis J.; Nilsson, Måns; Ordóñez Llanos, Andrea; Okereke, Chukwumerije; Pradhan, Prajal; Raven, Rob; Sun, Yixian (2022). "Scientific evidence on the political impact of the Sustainable Development Goals". Nature Sustainability. 5 (9): 795–800. doi: 10.1038/s41893-022-00909-5 . ISSN   2398-9629.
  27. ↑ Biermann, Frank; Sun, Yixian; Banik, Dan; Beisheim, Marianne; Bloomfield, Michael J.; Charles, Aurelie; Chasek, Pamela; Hickmann, Thomas; Pradhan, Prajal; Sénit, Carole-Anne (2023). "Four governance reforms to strengthen the SDGs". Science. 381 (6663): 1159–1160. doi:10.1126/science.adj5434. ISSN   0036-8075.
  28. ↑ "Utrecht University staff, research" . Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  29. ↑ "Solar Geoengineering Non-Use Agreement". Solar Geoengineering Non-Use Agreement. Retrieved 2024-07-26.
  30. ↑ "Solar Geoengineering Non-Use Agreement (front page)". Solar Geoengineering Non-Use Agreement. Retrieved 2024-09-12.
  31. ↑ "Earth System Governance Journal, Editorial board". ScienceDirect. Retrieved 2024-07-26.
  32. ↑ "Earth System Governance Journal Receives Impressive Impact Factor, Attaining Position as a Leading Q1 Journal (JCI)". Earth System Governance Project. Retrieved 2024-09-12.
  33. ↑ "Insights - Earth System Governance | ScienceDirect.com by Elsevier". www.sciencedirect.com. Retrieved 2024-09-12.
  34. ↑ "Earth System Governance Journal". SCImago Journal Rank indicator. Retrieved 2024-09-12.
  35. ↑ "Earth System Governance". MIT Press. Retrieved 2024-07-26.
  36. ↑ "Earth and Environmental Sciences". Cambridge Core. Retrieved 2024-07-26.
  37. ↑ "Cambridge Elements Earth System Governance, Series editors". Cambridge Core. Retrieved 2024-07-26.
  38. ↑ "Ecological Society of America announces 2019 award recipients". www.esa.org. Retrieved 2024-07-26.
  39. ↑ Bennett, Elena M; Solan, Martin; Biggs, Reinette; McPhearson, Timon; Norström, Albert V; Olsson, Per; Pereira, Laura; Peterson, Garry D; Raudsepp-Hearne, Ciara; Biermann, Frank; Carpenter, Stephen R; Ellis, Erle C; Hichert, Tanja; Galaz, Victor; Lahsen, Myanna (2016). "Bright spots: seeds of a good Anthropocene". Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. 14 (8): 441–448. Bibcode:2016FrEE...14..441B. doi:10.1002/fee.1309. ISSN   1540-9295.
  40. ↑ www.miwebb.com, miWebb: Creative Digital Agency-. "Societal Impact Award 2013 naar Frank Biermann". Advalvas (text from website translated with Google Translate) (in Dutch). Retrieved 2024-07-26.
  41. ↑ "About Us". World Academy of Art and Science. Retrieved 2024-08-07.
  42. ↑ "Publications". Personal website of Frank Biermann. Retrieved 2024-08-06.
  43. ↑ Hirsch, J. E. (2005-11-15). "An index to quantify an individual's scientific research output". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 102 (46): 16569–16572. arXiv: physics/0508025 . Bibcode:2005PNAS..10216569H. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0507655102 . ISSN   0027-8424. PMC   1283832 . PMID   16275915.
  44. ↑ "Are You Happy with Your h-Index?". NordMedia Network. Retrieved 2024-09-12.
  45. ↑ Biermann, Frank; Hickmann, Thomas; Sénit, Carole-Anne, eds. (2022). The Political Impact of the Sustainable Development Goals: Transforming Governance Through Global Goals? (1 ed.). Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781009082945. ISBN   978-1-009-08294-5.
  46. ↑ Biermann, Frank; Kim, Rakhyun E., eds. (2020). Architectures of Earth System Governance: Institutional Complexity and Structural Transformation (1 ed.). Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108784641. ISBN   978-1-108-78464-1.
  47. ↑ Biermann, Frank; Lövbrand, Eva, eds. (2019). Anthropocene Encounters: New Directions in Green Political Thinking (1 ed.). Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108646673. hdl:10453/143642. ISBN   978-1-108-64667-3.
  48. ↑ Kanie, Norichika; Biermann, Frank, eds. (2017). Governing through goals: sustainable development goals as governance innovation. Earth system governance. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. ISBN   978-0-262-03562-0.
  49. ↑ Biermann, Frank (2014). Earth system governance: world politics in the anthropocene. Earth system governance : a core research project of the international human dimensions programme on global environmental change. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. ISBN   978-0-262-02822-6.
  50. ↑ "Earth System Governance- World Politics in the Anthropocene". MIT Press (click on tab "praise"). Retrieved 29 July 2024.
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