In 2015, the United Nations adopted the Sustainable Development Goals, which 193 nations agreed to implement. So, what happened?
Frank Biermann, a political scientist, analyzed 3,000 scientific studies on the political effects of the Sustainable Development Goals. He found almost no progress.
Frank Biermann believes reforming the United Nations and other global institutions is necessary for a sustainable transition.
He founded the Earth System Governance Project, a transdisciplinary research network of sustainability scholars that develop better governance solutions.
Frank Biermann is a Global Sustainability Governance research professor at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. For his research on environmental governance, he was awarded the Volvo Environment Prize 2024.