Frank Biermann on studying sustainability in an age of planetary crisis

How can the world respond to climate change, biodiversity loss and ocean pollution when global cooperation itself is under pressure? For students interested in sustainability, this is no abstract question. Today’s generation is entering a world shaped by geopolitical conflict, contested technologies, unequal responsibilities and urgent planetary limits. At Utrecht University, Professor Frank Biermann helps students in the Bachelor Global Sustainability Science and Master Sustainable Development understand these challenges not only as environmental problems, but as deeply political ones.

How do you govern a planet in crisis?

For more than three decades, Frank Biermann has worked at the intersection of politics, law and planetary change. Trained as a political scientist and international lawyer, he began with questions of international cooperation. How do states, international organisations and legal frameworks respond to global crises that cross every border? Over time, this developed into a broader focus on “earth system governance”, the study of how political institutions, economic systems and social forces interact with planetary processes.

To advance this field Biermann initiated the Earth System Governance Project in 2006. Twenty years later it has grown into a worldwide network of researchers, research centers, annual conferences, three book series and a dedicated journal. For students, this means studying sustainability in direct connection with an international research community. Through guest lectures, global collaborations, internships and Biermann’s own participation in UN-level discussions, students encounter the real-world debates that shape environmental decision-making today.

Most recently, Biermann was appointed as the Chair of the International Panel on Earth System Governance, a new global science initiative that synthesizes research on how institutions, policies and governance systems address environmental and sustainability challenges at a planetary scale. Utrecht University hosts the panel, which also gives students the opportunity to contribute to international sustainability research from within the university.

Why global cooperation is getting harder

Biermann describes the early 1990s as a moment of optimism: the Rio Earth Summit of 1992, the end of the Cold War, a belief in linear progress and universal agreements. The assumption was that global governance would steadily improve. There would be more cooperation, more peace, more environmental protection. “That’s all gone,” he says bluntly. With geopolitical turmoil, war in Ukraine, Sudan, Gaza and other places, renewed great-power rivalry, and an increasing reluctance to commit to international agreements, students today face a different world. In this fragmented order, universal treaties seem less realistic.

Biermann argues that we must adapt our expectations. Instead of waiting for global consensus, he points to “plurilateralism”, smaller coalitions of willing countries moving ahead together. Europe, China, India, or alliances among Global South nations may drive progress even without universal participation. China’s massive investments in renewable energy, for example, are reshaping markets regardless of formal agreements. European carbon border measures shift incentives across supply chains. These developments, he suggests, may matter as much as — or more than — formal global treaties. 

In June 2026, Biermann was awarded a prestigious Advanced Grant worth €2.5 million from the European Research Council. With this money he will build a new research team to study this so-called “plurilateral planetary politics”, with plenty of opportunities for student contribution.

The Sustainable Development Goals: promise and limits

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been another major focus of Biermann’s research. Adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, the SDGs set out a shared global agenda to tackle poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation and other major challenges by 2030. 

More than a decade later, their political status is uneven. Some countries have integrated the SDGs into national planning. Others have stepped back or rejected them outright. Critics argue that the goals are not transformative enough, seeing them as the product of compromise between governments and industry rather than a blueprint for radical change. Biermann’s assessment is measured; the SDGs represent a remarkable global agreement, but they are only as strong as the commitment shown by the governments behind them. He also cautions against dismissing incremental governance in a world where radical consensus is unlikely. For students, the SDGs are an important case study. They show both the promise and the limits of global agreements; how much can be achieved when the world agrees on shared goals, but also how fragile those goals can be in reality.

Geoengineering and the politics of technological fixes

One of Biermann’s most controversial research topics is solar geoengineering – the proposal to develop technologies to cool the planet by reflecting sunlight back into space, for instance by injecting sulfur particles into the stratosphere. 

Technically, climate models suggest this could reduce average global temperatures. Politically, ethically and environmentally, however, Biermann sees profound risks. “There are numerous environmental uncertainties: disrupted monsoons, regional climate shifts, unknown ecological consequences. There are also significant governance problems. Who controls the ‘global thermostat’? Under what authority? And there is the danger of ‘mitigation deterrence’ – the risk that just the belief in a future technological fix reduces incentives to decarbonize today.”

In response, Biermann has helped launch an international initiative calling for an International Non-use Agreement on Solar Geoengineering, endorsed by hundreds of scientists and over two thousand civil society organizations. Numerous governments, particularly in Africa and small island states, have also expressed support.

For Biermann, this work blurs the line between scholarship and activism. It shows what can happen when academics step out of the ivory tower and into highly contested political debates. “With increasing calls for planetary-scale management and climate intervention approaches, we are entering a new phase of global politics that sometimes feels like science fiction, but that requires urgent resistance and political action, also by scientists,” he says.

What can students still do?

Many young people begin their studies at a time when the world feels increasingly unstable. Climate change, biodiversity loss, war, inequality and political polarisation are no longer distant, separate issues but connected crises shaping the society they are preparing to enter. This sense of instability can lead in different directions. Some students turn toward activism and social movements, others become more drawn to questions of security and national interests, while others feel overwhelmed and disengage altogether.

For Biermann, the classroom remains central. He argues that sustainability should be understood as “planetary politics” —explicitly political, attentive to justice and power, and honest about geopolitical fragmentation and conflicts. Students must be prepared not for a harmonious global order, but for a fractured one. 

At the same time, meaningful change happens in many different places. Utrecht University Alumni working in local water authorities, consultancies, startups or government agencies all contribute to sustainable transformations in meaningful ways. “Not every student will go on to negotiate global treaties, and not every solution begins at the UN,” he says. 

At the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Biermann continues to teach and research the political questions at the heart of sustainability—questions around who decides, who benefits, who takes responsibility, and how societies can act when the global order is increasingly fragmented. For students, this means studying sustainability not as a slogan, but as one of the defining political challenges of this generation. As Biermann puts it: “Everyone has a role to play and to make an important difference.”