Frank Biermann is a Research Professor of Global Sustainability Governance at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University, The Netherlands.
Biermann's research examines the institutional arrangements and governance systems that shape political responses to planetary crises and human-driven earth system change. He investigates how governance systems both reflect and reinforce structural inequalities and power relations, and explores pathways to more effective and equitable governance. His work seeks to provide an analytical foundation for transformative political and institutional reform while advancing new directions for scholarly inquiry.
Since 2005, Biermann has advanced the earth system governance framework as a critical lens for understanding the political and institutional dynamics of global environmental change. In 2006, he founded the Earth System Governance Project and served as its first chair until 2018. The project has evolved into a transdisciplinary research network of over 700 scholars, engaging with questions of power, agency, accountability and justice in sustainability governance across scales and contexts.
Biermann has authored or edited 23 books and published over 250 articles in peer-reviewed journals and chapters in academic books, along with over 100 policy contributions. Recent co-edited books include Could We Ever Govern Solar Geoengineering (Cambridge University Press, in press); The Future of the Sustainable Development Goals: Pathways towards Sustainability beyond 2030 (Cambridge University Press, in press); Essential Concepts for Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals: An A–Z Guide (Routledge 2025); The Political Impact of the Sustainable Development Goals (Cambridge University Press 2022), Architectures of Earth System Governance (Cambridge University Press 2020) and Anthropocene Encounters: New Directions in Green Political Thinking (Cambridge University Press 2019). His research has been cited over 34,000 times, reflected in a Hirsch-index of 87 in Google Scholar and an ‘Highly Cited Researcher’ award by Clarivate (2025).
He is the founder and editor-in-chief of the top-ranked open-access journal Earth System Governance (Elsevier), founder and co-editor of the Earth System Governance series with MIT Press and founding editor of the Earth System Governance series with Cambridge University Press. He has also served as founding co-editor of the Cambridge Elements in Earth System Governance until 2026.
Biermann is regularly invited to contribute to committees and events at the science-policy interface, and he has addressed numerous high-level political forums, including the United Nations General Assembly, the European Parliament and the European Economic and Social Committee. His work is also frequently featured in international media, with about thirty press interviews each year, including in BBC, CNN, The Guardian, The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Nature.
From 2003 to 2015, Biermann served as professor and head of the Department of Environmental Policy Analysis at the VU University Amsterdam. Towards the end of his 12-year term, this department was evaluated as being ‘world leading’ and ‘one of the highest profile academic research groups involved with sustainability governance from around the world’. From 2007 to 2014, Biermann directed the Netherlands Research School for Socio-Economic and Natural Sciences of the Environment, a national alliance of 11 institutes and 600 PhD students, which was assessed as a ‘network of excellence’ at the conclusion of his term. From 2001 to 2011, he led the Global Governance Project, a research programme of 12 European institutes. His other past affiliations include Free University Berlin, German Advisory Council on Global Change, Hamburg University, Harvard University, Humboldt University of Berlin, Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Lund University, University of Maryland, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Social Science Research Centre Berlin, Stanford University, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), and Uppsala University. At present, Biermann is a member of the scientific advisory boards of the Stockholm Environment Institute, the Stockholm Resilience Centre, and the Foundation for Development and Peace. He also serves as the chair of the Board of Trustees for the Earth System Governance Foundation.
Biermann has 30 years of teaching experience in Germany, India, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United States. He has successfully guided 28 PhD students to graduation, with four achieving the highest distinction and seven earning prestigious international recognitions.
He has won several awards, notably the 2024 Volvo Environment Prize, ‘for defining new pathways for international environmental governance in a period of global change’.
In addition, Biermann was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Lund University for pioneering contributions to the fields of global sustainability politics and earth system governance (2026); the 2025 Zennström Professorship in Climate Change Leadership at Uppsala University; an 2024 Alexander von Humboldt Professorship, endowed with 5 million EUR (declined for personal reasons); the 2021 Distinguished Scholar Award of the International Studies Association’s Environmental Studies Section (for ‘outstanding scholars whose long history of excellent research and teaching has had substantial impact on fields associated with international relations and environmental issues’) and a European Research Council ‘Advanced Grant’, the highest personal award from EU institutions. Further honours include the Ecological Society of America’s 2019 Innovations in Sustainability Science Award, the 2013 Societal Impact Award of VU University Amsterdam, and the 2011 Social Science Research Prize of VU University Amsterdam. Biermann was awarded the Joachim Tiburtius Prize in 1998 for the best dissertation of the Berlin universities and he has received scholarships from Harvard University and the Talented Students Programme of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. He is an elected Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science.
Biermann holds a Habilitation in Political Science (2001), a PhD in Political Science summa cum laude from Freie Universität Berlin (1997), and master’s degrees in Political Science (Freie Universität Berlin, 1993) and International Law (University of Aberdeen, 1994), both with distinction.
In 2025, Biermann published the history of his family in Northern Germany over four centuries and twelve generations, from 1560 until 1945 ("Von Armut und Aufstieg: Die Geschichte einer Familie über vier Jahrhunderte"). This book has been nominated for the Required Reading in Lower Saxony award 2026.
July 2026