Frank Biermann Explained

Nationality:German
Birth Date:1967
Known For:Global environmental and sustainability politics; pioneer of earth system governance paradigm
Occupation:University professor
Awards:Volvo Environment Prize (2024),ISA Distinguished Scholar Award in Environmental Studies (2021)
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".[1] He was the founder in 2006 and first chair (for ten years) of the Earth System Governance Project.[2] [3] From 2018 until 2024 he directed a 2.5-million EUR research programme on the steering effects of the Sustainable Development Goals.[4] [5] This was funded through a European Research Council Advanced Grant.

Biermann frequently speaks with journalists about his work.[6] They use the content from these interviews for their articles, for example in CNN,[7] BBC News,[8] and Time magazine.[9]

He has received several awards, most recently the Volvo Environment Prize in 2024 for "defining new pathways for international environmental governance in a period of global change",[10] and in 2021 the Distinguished Scholar Award in Environmental Studies by the International Studies Association. 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.

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.

Career

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. 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.[14]

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.

Biermann is also a member of the Science Advisory Council of the Stockholm Environment Institute[15] and an affiliate of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy’s Initiative on Environment and Sustainability at the National University of Singapore.[16] He also chairs the Board of Trustees of the Earth System Governance Foundation.[17]

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.

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.

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. For example, Biermann has called for the establishment of a World Environment Organization in 2000[18] and the negotiation of an International Agreement on Protecting Climate Refugees in 2010.[19] He has spoken in the United Nations General Assembly in 2014 during an Interactive Dialogue on Harmony with Nature.[20] [21] This fed into the Harmony with Nature report of the Secretary-General of the UN.[22]

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.[23] 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[24] and Science.[25]

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".[26] 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.[27] 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).[28] 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. He also said about this letter: "it’s a sign that anti-geoengineering scientists are getting more organized". 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.” 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."

Editorships

Biermann is the founding editor of the Elsevier journal Earth System Governance, an open access journal launched in 2009.[29] 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).[30] 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).[31] In the SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) indicator this journal appears as a Q1 journal (first quartile) in various disciplines.[32]

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.[40] His h-index as calculated in Google Scholar is 80.[41] The h-index is an author-level metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications.[42] [43]

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

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Utrecht University staff . 26 July 2024.
  2. Web site: 2021-04-09 . Frank Biermann receives lifetime achievement Distinguished Scholar Award - News - Utrecht University . 2024-07-26 . www.uu.nl . en.
  3. Web site: History of the ESG Project . 2024-09-14 . Earth System Governance Project . en-US.
  4. Web site: 2018-04-06 . Frank Biermann awarded ERC Advanced Grant for SDG research - News - Utrecht University . 2024-07-26 . www.uu.nl . en.
  5. Web site: GLOBALGOALS – Research for Sustainability . 2024-07-26 . en-GB.
  6. Web site: In the Media . 2024-07-26 . Personal website of Frank Biermann . en.
  7. Web site: Paddison . Laura . 2023 . This controversial climate solution could be exactly what the planet needs. Or it could be a colossal disaster . 2024-07-29 . CNN . en.
  8. Web site: Bourke . India . 11 October 2023 . To avert climate disaster, what if one rogue nation dimmed the Sun? . 2024-07-26 . BBC news . en-GB.
  9. Garza . Alejandro de la . 2023-03-17 . A Controversial Technology Is Creating an Unprecedented Rift Among Climate Scientists . 2024-07-26 . TIME . en.
  10. Web site: 2024 Laureate: Frank Biermann . 2024-09-23 . Volvo Environment Prize . en.
  11. Web site: Frank Biermann, Author at World Academy of Art and Science . 2024-08-05 . World Academy of Art and Science . en-US.
  12. Web site: 2005-09-30 . Tiburtius-Preis - Preis der Berliner Hochschulen . 2024-08-10 . www.fu-berlin.de . de.
  13. Web site: About . 2024-07-26 . Personal website of Frank Biermann . en.
  14. http://www.sense.nl/organisation/partners "Partner institutes & participating research groups"
  15. Web site: Science Advisory Council . 2024-07-29 . SEI . en-GB.
  16. Web site: Utrecht University staff, ancillary activities . 26 July 2024.
  17. Web site: Earth System Governance Foundation . 2024-09-12 . Earth System Governance Project . en-US.
  18. Biermann . Frank . 2000 . The Case for a World Environment Organization . Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development . en . 42 . 9 . 22–31 . 10.1080/00139150009605762 . 2000ESPSD..42i..22B . 0013-9157.
  19. Biermann . Frank . Boas . Ingrid . 2010 . Preparing for a Warmer World: Towards a Global Governance System to Protect Climate Refugees . Global Environmental Politics . en . 10 . 1 . 60–88 . 10.1162/glep.2010.10.1.60 . 1526-3800.
  20. Frank Biermann gives plenary presentation in UN General Assembly April 22, 2014 . 2014-10-23 . Earth System Governance TV . 2024-07-26 . YouTube.
  21. 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
  22. UNGA – United Nations General Assembly (2014) Harmony with Nature. Report of the Secretary-General. United Nations Doc. A/69/322 of 18 August 2014.
  23. Web site: GloCha UN HQ NY Conference 2024 – Celebrating the Future with Culture, Youth, Digital Innovation & Localization of SDGs – Welcome to GloCha . 2024-09-12 .
  24. 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 . en . 5 . 9 . 795–800 . 10.1038/s41893-022-00909-5 . 2398-9629. free .
  25. 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 . en . 381 . 6663 . 1159–1160 . 10.1126/science.adj5434 . 0036-8075.
  26. Web site: Utrecht University staff, research . 26 July 2024.
  27. Web site: Solar Geoengineering Non-Use Agreement . 2024-07-26 . Solar Geoengineering Non-Use Agreement . en-US.
  28. Web site: Solar Geoengineering Non-Use Agreement (front page) . 2024-09-12 . Solar Geoengineering Non-Use Agreement . en-US.
  29. Web site: Earth System Governance Journal, Editorial board . 2024-07-26 . ScienceDirect . en-us.
  30. Web site: Earth System Governance Journal Receives Impressive Impact Factor, Attaining Position as a Leading Q1 Journal (JCI) . 2024-09-12 . Earth System Governance Project . en-US.
  31. Web site: Insights - Earth System Governance ScienceDirect.com by Elsevier . 2024-09-12 . www.sciencedirect.com.
  32. Web site: Earth System Governance Journal . 2024-09-12 . SCImago Journal Rank indicator.
  33. Web site: Earth System Governance . 2024-07-26 . MIT Press . en-US.
  34. Web site: Earth and Environmental Sciences . 2024-07-26 . Cambridge Core . en.
  35. Web site: Cambridge Elements Earth System Governance, Series editors . 2024-07-26 . Cambridge Core . en.
  36. Web site: Ecological Society of America announces 2019 award recipients . 2024-07-26 . www.esa.org.
  37. 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 . en . 14 . 8 . 441–448 . 10.1002/fee.1309 . 2016FrEE...14..441B . 1540-9295.
  38. Web site: www.miwebb.com . miWebb: Creative Digital Agency- . Societal Impact Award 2013 naar Frank Biermann . 2024-07-26 . Advalvas (text from website translated with Google Translate) . nl-NL.
  39. Web site: About Us . 2024-08-07 . World Academy of Art and Science . en-US.
  40. Web site: Publications . 2024-08-06 . Personal website of Frank Biermann . en.
  41. Web site: Google Scholar results for Frank Biermann . 2024-07-26 . scholar.google.com.
  42. Hirsch . J. E. . 2005-11-15 . An index to quantify an individual's scientific research output . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . en . 102 . 46 . 16569–16572 . physics/0508025 . 2005PNAS..10216569H . 10.1073/pnas.0507655102 . 0027-8424 . 1283832 . 16275915 . free.
  43. Web site: Are You Happy with Your h-Index? . 2024-09-12 . NordMedia Network . en.
  44. Book: The Political Impact of the Sustainable Development Goals: Transforming Governance Through Global Goals? . 2022 . Cambridge University Press . 978-1-009-08294-5 . Biermann . Frank . 1 . 10.1017/9781009082945 . Hickmann . Thomas . Sénit . Carole-Anne.
  45. Book: Architectures of Earth System Governance: Institutional Complexity and Structural Transformation . 2020 . Cambridge University Press . 978-1-108-78464-1 . Biermann . Frank . 1 . 10.1017/9781108784641 . Kim . Rakhyun E..
  46. Book: Anthropocene Encounters: New Directions in Green Political Thinking . 2019 . Cambridge University Press . 978-1-108-64667-3 . Biermann . Frank . 1 . 10.1017/9781108646673 . 10453/143642 . Lövbrand . Eva.
  47. Book: Governing through goals: sustainable development goals as governance innovation . 2017 . MIT Press . 978-0-262-03562-0 . Kanie . Norichika . Earth system governance . Cambridge, Massachusetts . Biermann . Frank.
  48. Book: Biermann, Frank . Earth system governance: world politics in the anthropocene . 2014 . The MIT Press . 978-0-262-02822-6 . Earth system governance : a core research project of the international human dimensions programme on global environmental change . Cambridge, Massachusetts.
  49. Web site: Earth System Governance- World Politics in the Anthropocene . 29 July 2024 . MIT Press (click on tab "praise") . en-US.

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