Frank Biermann addresses this challenge of adapting to possibly drastic climate change from the perspective of international relations and global governance.

He first assesses adaptive governance capacities in six domains of world politics with a view to potential drastic climate change. He then identifies three dilemmas of global adaptation governance that complicate international political responses to drastic climate change, namely adaptability versus stability, effectiveness versus legitimacy, and effectiveness versus fairness.

Third, he outlines several institutional mechanisms and instruments that could assist in resolving these three dilemmas of global adaptation governance.

About Professor Biermann
Frank Biermann is a professor of political science and environmental policy sciences. He specializes in global environmental governance, with emphasis on climate negotiations, UN reform, global adaptation governance, public-private governance mechanisms, the role of science, North-South relations, and trade and environment conflicts.

Biermann is the general director of the Netherlands Research School for the Socio-economic and Natural Sciences of the Environment (SENSE), a national research network of nine research institutes with 150 scientists and 350 PhD students.

Biermann is also the founding chair of the annual series of Berlin Conferences on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change; the founding director of the Global Governance Project, a joint programme of twelve European research institutes; and the chair of the Earth System Governance Project, a ten-year global research programme under the auspices of the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change.