Since September 2024, I am Managing Director of the German Climate Consortium, the umbrella organization of German climate research. Before that, since 2016, I was Professor for Social-Ecological Transformation at the Technical University of Berlin and at the Einstein Center Digital Future. From 2009-2011, I was Head of International Climate and Energy Policy at the Heinrich Boell Foundation. From 2001-2009, I served as Senior Research Fellow at the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy.

I have studied sociology, anthropology and economics and accomplished a PhD in social science. During my studies, I jobbed for Greenpeace and Kienbaum Management Consultants Ltd.. Between 2012-2015, I wrote a PhD thesis at the University of Kassel. During the academic year 2013-2014, I was Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley.

As a scientific author, I have published on topics such as climate policy and climate justice, digital transformation, world trade, and sustainable economics. Apart from numerous articles, I have co-authored the books: “Fair Future. Limited Ressources, Security, and Global Justice” (zed books, 2007); “Slow Trade – Sound Farming. A Multilateral Framework for Sustainable Markets in Agriculture” (www.ecofair-trade.org, 2007); and “Rethinking Climate and Energy Policies” (Springer, 2016). My latest books are “Smart Green World? Making Digitalization Work for Sustainability” (Routledge, 2020) as well as “Digital Reset. Redirecting Technologies for the Deep Sustainability Transformation” (oekom, 2022).

I have always much engaged in civil society work. I served as member of the board to the NGO Germanwatch between 2007-2016. Between 2016-2024, I was member of the advisory board of Greenpeace Germany. In 2020, I have co-founded, and since then co-lead, the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) initiaitive “FrohLaWi e.V.

With my wife and our four children, I live in Berlin and on the Katharinenhof in Gransee, Brandenburg. I have documented the turbulent history of the Katharinenhof here.

Photo: by Felix Noak