47th TB Macaulay Lecture – with Professor Frank Biermann

The 47th TB Macaulay lecture will be delivered by Professor Frank Biermann, a leading scholar of global sustainability and the founder and first chair of the global Earth System Governance research alliance.

Hosted by the Macaulay Development Trust in partnership with The James Hutton Institute, the TB Macaulay Lecture aims to connect scientific evidence with civic society on the big issues affecting our land and people and specifically to reach those who influence and make decisions on policy.

This year’s speaker, Professor Biermann, is the founder and first chair of the global Earth System Governance research alliance – a network focused on advancing knowledge at the intersection of global environmental change and governance. Since its launch twenty years ago, the initiative has grown to include more than 600 researchers from around the world. It hosts major annual conferences, supports book series with MIT Press and Cambridge University Press, publishes a high-ranking academic journal and coordinates influential international research initiatives. In 2024, Professor Biermann became the first political scientist to receive the prestigious Volvo Environment Prize for his work “defining new pathways for international environmental governance in a period of global change”.

Through his lecture, the scholar will explore how accelerating climate impacts, geopolitical tensions, democratic backsliding and persistent inequalities have rendered traditional approaches to environmental governance insufficient.

He will outline how planetary politics offers a fresh perspective for understanding and navigating the profound transformations shaping our future, and how plurilateral coalitions of like-minded countries can succeed in a world where global consensus is out of reach.

The talk will also highlight Professor Biermann’s extensive research on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with a specific focus on the critical period leading to 2030, when the current framework expires and new global goals must be negotiated.

Attendees can expect:

• A timely look at what’s at stake as the world approaches the 2030 SDG milestone
• A compelling introduction to the emerging concept of planetary politics
• Big‑picture insights combined with recent empirical research
• Reflections on the future of global sustainability governance

The lecture will take place at the National Museum of Scotland, Wednesday 21 October 2026.

Programme:

• 1830: Pre-lecture exhibition
• 1930: 47th TB Macaulay Lecture
• 2100: Post-lecture reception

The event is free to attend. Tickets for the lecture can be purchased through Eventbrite. Numbers are limited, so order quickly to secure a space.

Background to the TB Macaulay lecture

The annual TB Macaulay lecture is held to honour the vision of Dr Thomas Bassett Macaulay, President and chairman of the Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada, whose benefaction founded the original Macaulay Institute for Soil Research in 1930. He was a descendant of the Macaulays from the Island of Lewis and his aim was to improve the productivity of Scottish Agriculture. This vision continues today in its successor The James Hutton Institute, a world-leader in land, crop, water, environmental and socio-economics science.