Frank Biermann is a research professor of Global Sustainability Governance at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. He is the founding chair of the Earth System Governance Project, founding editor of the Earth System Governance journal, and has just completed a 2.5 million EUR research project on the steering effects of the Sustainable Development Goals. Among other honours, he has received the Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies award from the International Studies Association; in October 2024, he became the first political scientist to win the Volvo Environment Prize, ‘for defining new pathways for international environmental governance in a period of global change’.