Gotelind Alber is an independent researcher and advisor on sustainable energy and climate change policy with a special focus on gender and climate justice. She is co-founder and board member of the global network GenderCC.
She holds an advanced university degree in physics and has many years of working experience in research, policy and management. Her current work focuses on the integration of gender dimensions into urban climate policy, and she is leading GenderCC’s project “Gender into Urban Climate Change Initiative”.
Amelia Arreguín Prado is the General Coordinator of Eco Maxei Querétaro AC. She holds a Bachelor in political communication and is a specialist in gender and community development, working to advance women and girls’ rights within the environmental sector.
She is a young ecofeminist, cyclist, mountain lover and birdwatcher. She serves as Co-coordinator of the Women's Group of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Policy Officer for Women4Biodiversity, and as Regional Coordinator for the Global Youth Biodiversity Network in Latin America and the Caribbean. She has been a university lecturer, author of several articles, and has participated as a speaker and organizer of environmental and academic events.
Nicholas Bamberger is a pianist, singer-songwriter and composer. His career began in Switzerland while studying at the Hochschule der Künste Bern. In 2017 an artist residency brought him to Berlin, where he developed "The Piano Solo Street Sessions". This project helped him to be discovered quickly. He recently composed and played the music for one of Heimathafen Neukölln's latest theater productions. Lately, Nicholas Bamberger has been working on soundtrack productions and now composes advertising music for the watch brand Omega.
MP Nezahat Baradari, born in 1965 in Bogazköy, Turkey, is a resident pediatrician and adolescent doctor with her own specialist practice in Attendorn and has been a member of the German Bundestag since January 2019. Here she represents the district “Olpe/Märkischer Kreis I” on behalf of the SPD. She is a member of the Committee on European Union Affairs, a member of the Committee on Food and Agriculture and a deputy member of the Health Committee. She is also a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean. In the EU committee she is, among other things, rapporteur for Malta, Cyprus and Turkey.
Nnimmo Bassey, architect and writer/poet is director of the ecological think-tank, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) and member steering committee of Oilwatch International – a network resisting the expansion of fossil fuels extraction in the Global South. He was chair of Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) (2008-2012) and Executive Director of Nigeria’s Environmental Rights Action (1993-2013).
He was a co-recipient of the 2010 Right Livelihood Award also known as the “Alternative Noble Prize”. In 2012 he received the Rafto Human Rights Award. In 2014 he received Nigeria’s national honour as Member of the Federal Republic (MFR) in recognition of his environmental activism and an honorary doctorate from the University of York, UK, in 2019.
Dr. Erika Bellmann has a degree in chemistry and is Senior Policy Advisor for Climate & Energy at the WWF, working to ensure that new climate-neutral technologies are implemented in time to limit the climate crisis.
After 14 years of experience as a foreign correspondent for the Handelsblatt, Susanne Bergius has been a freelance journalist and moderator for sustainable business and finance in Berlin since 2004.
She has been writing the „Handelsblatt Business Briefing Nachhaltige Investments“, for more than 11 years, published the handbook "Geldanlagen und Investoren hinterfragen" in 2018, has also been reporting for the Tagesspiegel Background since 2019 and is active as a lecturer.
She has received several awards for her work. She is a co-founder of the non-profit journalistic network Weitblick.
Mariana Blanco Puente has been the FES Programme Director of the regional project Socio-ecological Transformation Latin America since April 2019. The project is based in Mexico. Her studies in sociology at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and her master's degree in social and environmental sciences at the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales, based in Ecuador, were followed by numerous ongoing research projects on extractivism, social movements and agroecology.
Dr. Robert Brandt is Managing Director of the Agency for Renewable Energies (AEE). The former Head of Association Development of the German Renewable Energy Federation (BEE) and interim political consultant at adelphi. He previously worked as a management consultant for various municipal utilities and originally got to know the energy industry at E.ON edis. Between 2012 and 2018, he headed the BEE's System Transformation Platform, which has published various studies on energy system transformation issues. Until 2015, the graduate in business administration worked part-time as a research assistant at the Helmholtz Alliance ENERGY TRANS and earned his doctorate in political science.
Meike Büscher is Project Manager/Research Associate at the Nordic Office of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) in Stockholm. She works at the FES with the dialog between the Nordic Countries and Germany. Some of her major areas of work are climate policy, the digital economy, and labour market policies. She studied Sociology at the University of Hamburg and at the University of Lund with focus on social inequality and statistics.
Delara Burkhardt is a member of the European Parliament for the SPD coming from Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein. In 2019 she became the youngest German member of the European Parliament. She is a member of the Environment Committee, in which she works on climate and environmental protection, biodiversity and forest protection. She is also the environmental policy spokeswoman of the SPD Europe. As rapporteur for the European Parliament, she is currently focusing on deforestation-free supply chains. She also works on the topic of migration in the European Committee on Home Affairs.
Sharan Burrow is General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, representing 200 million workers in 163 countries and territories with 332 national affiliates. Previously President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) from 2000 – 2010, Sharan Burrow is a passionate advocate and campaigner for social justice, women’s rights, the environment and labour law reforms, and has led union negotiations on major economic reforms and labour rights campaigns in her home country of Australia and globally.
Lucía Delbene Lezama is a biologist with a post-grad specialization in Management of Natural Areas as well as a master’s degree in Geoscience from the University of the Republic, Uruguay. She also holds a master’s degree in Public Policy and Gender from the Latinamerican Faculty of Social Sciences. Her research is focused on Political Ecology and Ecofeminist theories. Lucía Delbene Lezama is co-founder of the Ecofeminist Collective "Dafnias" in Uruguay, organizes courses, lectures and workshops in several countries and creates several publications.
Carola Dittmann is a biologist and holds a Master of Business Administration. For more than 10 years her thematic priorities have been in the fields of vocational training for sustainable development, transparency and reporting obligations as well as corporate social responsibility. Since 2015, she has been responsible for the area of sustainability/CSR and co-determination in the Work and Environment Foundation of the IG BCE trade union and supports the sustainability initiative Chemie³ of the chemical-pharmaceutical industry with her expertise.
Saori Dubourg is a Member of the Board of Executive Directors of BASF SE, a position she assumed in May 2017. She is responsible for BASF’s global businesses in Agricultural Solutions, Nutrition & Health, Care Chemicals, and Construction Chemicals. Furthermore, she oversees BASF’s Bioscience Research unit, the startup trinamiX, the region Europe, and the BASF Corporate Sustainability Board. Saori Dubourg worked at BASF in various positions since 1996, several years in USA, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong. As a member of the Industrial Policy Group of the EU Commission, Saori Dubourg together with experts contributed to a joint industry vision paper for Europe 2030. The report, which was published in June 2019, sets out a vision of European industry in 2030 as a global leader, responsibly delivering value for society, the environment and the economy. Since January 2020 Saori Dubourg is a member of the German Council for Sustainable Development, which advises the Federal Government on the implementation of the sustainability strategy.
Sébastien Duyck is a senior attorney at Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) working from Geneva for CIEL's Climate & Energy Program. His work focuses primarily on promoting the integration of human rights and public participation in climate governance and in strengthening accountability for climate harms.
Sébastien leads CIEL’s engagement with UN human rights institutions seeking greater consideration and scrutiny by these bodies of the duties of States to prevent human rights harms caused by climate change or climate responses and to promote environmental democracy. He also co-facilitates the Human Rights and Climate Change Working Group, convening civil society organizations advocating for the promotion and respect of human rights under the UN climate change regime and in the implementation of the Paris Agreement.
Claudia Ehing is heading the regional climate and energy project of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Asia. Based in Hanoi, she works on topics like sustainable urban development and a just energy transition. Prior to this, she was a project assistant for FES in the Czech Republic and a desk officer in the department for Latin America and the Caribbean. At the German Development Institute (GDI/ DIE), she researched the role of the United Nations in the fight against climate change in the context of Vietnam.
With over 35 years of experience in the oil & gas sector in senior management positions, Charles Ellinas currently is the CEO of e-CNHC (E-C Cyprus Natural Hydrocarbons Company Ltd), providing management and advisory services in the oil & gas and energy sectors in Cyprus and the region. Prior to this, as CEO of KRETYK he was responsible for implementing the Cypriot government’s strategy for the development of its hydrocarbons sector. Until 2012 he was a Director of Mott MacDonald for 25 years and the Managing Director of Mott MacDonald’s Oil, Gas & Petrochemicals business world-wide. Charles Ellinas is also a Features Editor of “Natural Gas World”, and a Senior Associate at the Atlantic Council.
Ms. Espinosa is the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.Ambassador of Mexico to Germany since 2012 and from 2001 to 2002, Ms. Espinosa was Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mexico from 2006 to 2012, bringing over30 years of experience at highest levels in international relations. As Chair of the Third Committee of the UNGA (1996), she played a key role in the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action. Ambassador of Mexico to Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia and theUN in Vienna (2002-2006), Chief of Staff to the Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs (1989-1991) and responsible for economic issues at the Permanent Mission to the UN in Geneva (1982-1988)
Rebecca Freitag was the German UN Youth Delegate on Sustainable Development 2017-2019, where she represented the interests of the young generation at UN conferences and in national politics.
She kick-started the international climate campaign "All in for Climate Action" with young climate activists from 70 countries and 1.5 million supporters which she handed over at the UN Climate Action Summit. Now, as the Ambassador for the Rights for Future Generations she continues to motivate people to implement the SDGs, challenges our current paradigms and explores ways into a sustainable future. She studies Integrated Natural Resource Management.
Ralf Fücks is managing partner of the Centre for Liberal Modernity. Prior to that, he headed the Heinrich Böll Foundation for 21 years and was the Federal Chairman of the Green Party and Senator for Environment and Urban Development in Bremen. A passion for ecology and freedom is also reflected in Fücks' books »Green Growth, Smart Growth: A New Approach to Economics, Innovation and the Environment« (2013) und »Defending Freedom: How We Can Win the Fight for an Open Society« (2017, both published by Hanser-Verlag).
Dr. Joachim Fünfgelt has been a consultant for energy policy at Brot für die Welt since 2015, in the areas of renewable energies, energy access, Just Transition and hydrogen. Together with the partners of Brot für die Welt, he is working at national and international level for a global energy turnaround. Prior to this, he worked as a scientist in the field of sustainable economics and with international non-governmental organisations on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He studied and received his doctorate in economics.
Alexander Geiger has been Senior Advisor for Trade Policy at the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Berlin since 2015. Prior to this, he worked as a desk officer in the FES offices in Brussels and Hanoi for several years and, subsequently, was the deputy country representative of the FES in Istanbul (2012-2015). In 2019, he was on leave of absence from the FES to work as a personal advisor to Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel, deputy and interim SPD party chairman, on the SPD party executive board. Alexander Geiger studied political science and economics in Magdeburg.
Magnus Gissler is the General Secretary of NFS, the Council of Nordic Trade Unions, where he works with and is responsible for Nordic trade union cooperation on Nordic, European and International affairs. He was elected for his first term in 2014 and re-elected in 2018. He has a long career in the Swedish and Nordic trade union movements and has had several assignments within the white-collar and academic trade union movements, for example as Confederal Secretary in the Swedish Financial Sector Union, as Policy Advisor at the Nordic Financial Unions and as General Secretary for the Association of Church of Sweden Employees. He has a Degree of Master of Science in Business and Economics from the University of Uppsala.
Since 2005, Constantin Grund has been a political advisor of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation with duty stations in Benin, Ethiopia and Madagascar. In addition to his focus on organizational and Leadership development for public institutions and political parties, Constantin Grund is primarily committed to more effective educational equality as well as a stronger German engagement in Africa. Currently, he is the FES’ Coordinator for Climate Policies in Africa, based in Antananarivo.
Pernille Hagedorn-Rasmussen has spent the last 20 years working on climate policy, both within an NGO and as a consultant, and for the last 10 years in the trade union movement. At IDA, the Danish Engineers' Union, she has implemented projects where members have developed possible climate protection scenarios for Denmark. She works as a policy advisor on climate and energy for IDA and represents the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions of Academics (Akademikerne) on climate change, for example in the ETUC, the Committee on Sustainable Development, Energy and Climate Change.
Johan Hall is working as a research officer at the international department of the Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO) since 2016. There, he is especially responsible for questions with focus on climate, energy, and environmental issues, after he has been working as an investigator with a focus on industrial policy. But even here, he has been dealing with environment issues, such as the creation of Green Jobs. Before that, he, among other things, worked as a city council secretary, as a political adviser at the prime minister’s office and was part of the commission of trust, that framed the climate goals of the Swedish government.
Reiner Hoffmann, a native of Wuppertal, who holds a degree in economics, committed important stages of his life to the cause of the trade union movement: Head of research funding of the Hans-Böckler-Foundation, Director of the European Trade Union Institute, Deputy Secretary General of the European Trade Union movement and State District Leader of the IG BCE North Rhein. In May 2014 Hoffmann was elected to be the new president of the German Trade Union.
Kristina Jeromin joined Deutsche Börse Group in 2009 and was initially responsible for the internal and external communication of the Group-wide sustainability strategy. Since 2015, she is responsible as Head of Group Sustainability for group-wide sustainability management, covering the company’s roles as an international capital market organiser and DAX-listed company. Kristina is since 2018 Managing Director of the Green and Sustainable Finance Cluster Germany, member of the board at econsense – Forum for Sustainable Development of German Business e.V. and member of the German Society of the Club of Rome. Kristina is a deputy chairwoman of the German government's Sustainable Finance Advisory Board.
Marei John-Ohnesorg is an executive board member of ‘Managers Circle’ of Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. The membership-based network offers a forum for business persons, executives and representatives from business associations and politics close to social democracy. The managers circle is committed to shaping economic policies based on innovation, ecology and social justice.
Eva Junge is part of “Wandelwerk”, a network of environmental psychologists. She is an expert in climate communication with a background in psychology and human ecology.
Her political home is the climate justice movement, in which she advocates social-ecological change in a variety of ways.
Diana Kaissy has been the executive director of the Lebanese Oil and Gas Initiative-LOGI since 2017, an independent non-governmental organization based in Beirut working on promoting transparency and accountability in the petroleum sector in Lebanon. Between 2012 and mid-2017 she served as regional coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, and Asia Pacific at Publish What You Pay organization, a global network that includes more than 800 civil society organizations advocating for transparency and accountability in the governance of natural resources. Diana Kaissy is a board member of the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative-EITI Executive board (2019-2021) where she represents civil society organizations, and is also Chair of the Outreach and Candidature Committee at the EITI board, and a board member of the Palestine Association for the Children Encouragement of Sports (PACES).
David Killilea is a co-founding member of Galway Energy Co-Operative. He is a medical student studying at University College Dublin. Galway Energy Co-operative was founded to provide access to ownership of renewable energy infrastructure for the local community of the city and county. To-date we have engaged in community talks about retrofits and consulted with community housing groups on retrofitting homes to be more energy efficient. We have entered into a town twinning programme with Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm in Bavaria to share knowledge and experience. Furthermore, GEC is examining the feasibility of hydro and solar infrastructure in the city of Galway and how we can harness those resources for community benefit."
Mara Marthe Kleiner heads the office of the director of Agora Energiewende. She is responsible for fundamental issues of energy system transformation and organisational development. Since joining Agora Energiewende in 2014, she has supported Agora in various areas, including energy policy for renewable and conventional power generation in China, data analysis and the further development of the online tools Agorameter and EEG calculator. Mara Marthe Kleiner studied political science in Mannheim, Bremen and Maastricht
Dagmar Köhler heads the "Local Mobility" team and the Bicycle Academy in the Research Field Mobility. She is an expert for European transport policy and international networking of cities and regions. For eight years she worked for the European city network POLIS in Brussels, where she consulted with cities from all over Europe as well as EU institutions and associations on topics such as walking and cycling, road safety, innovation, emission reduction or transport planning. Dagmar Köhler studied geography and communication sciences in Leipzig, Madrid and Stellenbosch and has worked in Berlin, Brussels, Leipzig, Lima and Pretoria.
Marie Christina Kolo is an inspiring climate activist from Madagascar. Besides her proven track record as a social entrepreneur and community organizer she is one of the founding members of the Indian Ocean Climate Network. After being Madagascar’s first Youth Delegate at the COP21, she continued her advocacy and lobbying for national and international climate justice at the COP25 meeting as part of UNFCCC’s Women and Gender Group. She was nominated for the WWF Youth Africa Award, dedicated to Young Leaders on environment and climate change in Africa, and chosen as best woman-led social start-up in Southern Africa in 2019.
Patrizia Kraft is the energy policy officer at the DGB headquarter. Before she worked as an expert on energy policy for the German Energy Agency (dena) and as staff member for Bernd Westphal, Member of the Parliament of Germany. She graduated in European Studies and Political Science.
Silvie Kreibiehl serves as Chair of the Board of Germanwatch e.V. She led the Frankfurt School - UNEP Collaborating Centre for Climate & Sustainable Energy Finance at Frankfurt School of Finance & Management until the birth of her daughter in December 2018. Currently, she focusses on her role as Coordinating Lead Author for the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), WG III Investment and Finance. Beforehand, she worked for Deutsche Bank for 17 years, with 10 years in corporate finance.
Roberto Kreimerman was Uruguay’s Minister for Industry from 2010 to 2014. He is a Chemical Engineering graduate of Uruguay’s University of the Republic. Kreimerman has a post-graduate qualification in Economics and International Trade and a Masters in Finance and International Trade from the University of Barcelona. He was also Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining.
Kevin Kühnert is deputy chairman of the SPD and federal chairman of the SPD youth branch Young Socialists (Jusos). The 31-year old Berlin native was previously the regional chairman of the Jusos in the German capital for several years. He has been involved in local politics for many years in his home district Tempelhof-Schöneberg, where he is also a member of the district council and is running for the German Bundestag in 2021. From his own involvement he knows both the perspective of party-politics as well as the perspective of civil society alliances on politics and transformation processes.
Dr. Éloi Laurent is a Senior Research Fellow at OFCE (Sciences Po Centre for Economic Research, Paris), Professor in the School of Management and Innovation at Sciences Po and at Ponts ParisTech and Visiting Professor at Stanford University (Paris and Stanford). His current work focuses on the relation between sustainability and well-being, with a focus on the sustainability-justice nexus (social-ecology). He is the author or editor of twenty books (translated into eight languages), three governmental reports and over a hundred articles published in French and international journals.
Leon Leuser is a Project Manager at the climate think tank „adelphi“, focussing on environmental and sustainability policy. He develops tools and strategies for sufficiency policy, sustainable consumption, social-ecological urban development, and digitalization.
Manuela Mattheß is Senior Advisor for international climate and energy policy at the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. In her work, she focuses on various aspects of socio-ecological transformation and global climate justice, with a special emphasis on Just Transition. Previously, she worked as a project assistant for the FES in Senegal and as a desk officer in the Central and Eastern Europe Department in Berlin. She studied Arabic Studies and Political Science in Leipzig and Ankara.
Prof. Dr. (University of Florence) Elisabeth Merk, architect,has served as the City of Munich’s Planning Director since 2007. After freelance work in architecture and monument protection and further studies in Florcen, she was responsible for urban planning, urban monument conservation, and special projects in Munich and Regensburg from 1995 to 2000. She headed the urban development and urban planning division in Halle/Saale from 2000 to 2006. From 2005-2007 Elisabeth Merk taught at the Hochschule für Technik (HfT) in Stuttgart, where she was appointed honorary professor in 2009. She has been President of the German Academy for Urban Construction and Regional Planning (DASL) since 2015 and in 2020 she received an honorary professorship at the Technical University of Munich (TUM).
Heino von Meyer is in charge of global relations and networking at the International PtX Hub Berlin. The hub serves as a global knowledge and dialogue platform for the development of sustainable Power to X solutions. The X stands for fossil-free fuels and feedstocks, which - based on green hydrogen from renewable energies - contribute to the Paris climate goals and the SDGs. The PtX Hub is being set-up by the Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) with funding from the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU).Heino v. Meyer worked for the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) for three decades until 2019, the last 15 years as Head of the OECD Berlin Centre. His professional expertise covers a wide range of economic, agricultural, regional and environmental policy areas with a focus on coherence, local initiatives and international cooperation. He is Senior Policy Advisor to the Ecologic Institute in Berlin. He is also a member of the Board of Transparency International - Germany.
MP Dr. Matthias Miersch holds a doctorate in law and has been a member of the German Bundestag since 2005. From 2009 to 2017, he was environmental policy spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group. Since 2017, he has been Deputy Chairman of the parliamentary group for the areas of environment, nature conservation and nuclear safety; energy; agriculture and food; and tourism. Dr. Matthias Miersch is, among other things, a member of the Nature Conservation Association of Germany, the Advisory Board of the German Environmental Foundation and the Chamber for Sustainable Development of the Protestant Church in Germany.
Frederik Moch is the Head of the Structural, Industry and Service Policy Department at the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) in Berlin. In addition to the department's main topics, it also addresses policy questions regarding energy, the environment, climate, mobility and crafts. The focus is on the just design of structural changes in the economy. Previously, Frederik Moch worked in the policy area at the German Solar Association.
Dr. Katrin Mohr is a social scientist and works as Political Secretary in the area of fundamental issues and social policy of the Executive Committee of IG Metall. Her focus primarily lies on issues relating to the future of work and the welfare state. She was previously a parliamentary group spokesperson for social security in the German Bundestag and completed her doctorate on the connection between the labour market, social policy and social exclusion. In her view, the change to a climate-friendly economy and lifestyle can only succeed if it is socially and democratically shaped.
Robert Muthami is a Climate Change Policy Specialist and works with the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Kenya Office as a Programme Coordinator for the Socioecological Transformation programme
For more than 20 years, Dr. Mithika Mwenda is one of the most profiled and acknowledged policy advisors for climate justice in Africa. He currently serves as Executive Director of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) in Kenya and represents the African civil society in Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) of the World Bank. Based on this extensive experience and progressive advocacy, Dr. Mwenda was nominated for the EarthCare Award by the Sierra Club in 2019 and is widely recognized as a key influencer in Africa and the world on Climate Change Policy.
Luisa Neubauer, born in Hamburg in 1996, is one of the co-organizers of Fridays for Future and the most prominent representative of the German movement in the media. She works with various NGOs for climate protection, generational justice and against poverty. In 2018 she met the Swedish student Greta Thunberg at the UN Climate Change Conference and was one of four German delegates to the G7 youth summit in Canada. At the end of 2019, together with Greta Thunberg and other activists, she took part in the climate conference in Madrid - and in early 2020 in the World Economic Forum in Davos. In January 2020, Luisa Neubauer and Fridays for Future protested against Siemens' participation in the planned Australian coal mine Carmichael.
Luisa Neubauer completed a bachelor's degree in geography in 2019. She is currently studying resource analysis and management for her Master's degree at the Georg-August University of Göttingen. Together with Alexander Repenning, she published the book "Vom Ende der Klimakrise - Eine Geschichte unserer Zukunft" in 2019. Luisa Neubauer lives in Göttingen and Berlin.
Günter Nooke has been the Federal Chancellor's Personal Representative for Africa since April 2010 and additionally Africa Commissioner of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development since May 2014. He represents the Federal Government at national and international events related to Africa, publishes on this and other topics and is a frequent discussion partner of the media.
From 2006 to 2010 he worked as Federal Government Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Aid at the Federal Foreign Office. From 2003 to 2014 he was also a member of the Broadcasting Council of Deutsche Welle. Nooke was a member of the German Bundestag from 1998 to 2005, in the first legislative period since 2000 as spokesman for the East German CDU members of parliament and deputy parliamentary party leader, then from 2002 to 2005 as spokesman for culture and media of the CDU/CSU parliamentary party and in the Enquete Commission "Culture in Germany". In 1990 he became a member of the freely elected Volkskammer of the GDR via the Liste Bündnis 90. Before autumn 1989, Günter Nooke was involved in the church opposition group "Ecumenical Peace Circle of the district Forst (Lausitz)” and was a founding member of the "Democratic Awakening" on 1 October 1989. He is a skilled construction worker, studied physics in Leipzig and completed a postgraduate course in medical physics in Berlin.
Max Ostermayer is desk officer for climate, environmental, energy and structural policy in the Division for Economic and Social Policy. He heads the Working Group on Sustainable Structural Policy at the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.
Mareike Le Pelley is responsible for the working area of construction, housing, urban development and mobility at the Division for Economic and Social Policies. She heads the Friedrich Ebert Foundation's Working Group on Spatial Development, which develops impulses for socially, ecologically and economically sustainable urban development, construction and housing policy. Previously, Mareike Le Pelley worked as a socio-political advisor and country representative of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in South-East Asia and in Southern and Eastern Africa.
José Pérez Johansson was employed at the Council of Nordic Trade Unions (NFS) in 2015, where he works with Nordic trade union cooperation on Nordic, European and International affairs. He has also worked at the Swedish Tenants‘ Union and spent some years in Norway working with recruitment, staffing and youth unemployment. Before taking adult education and studying political science at the Univeristy of Umeå and Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, he started his working life at the age of sixteen and worked among other things as a heavy truck driver.
As a political scientist (M.A.), Kerstin Pettenkofer is passionate about communicating complex connections. She follows this passion with her work in the field of sustainability consulting and combines her experience from business practice with scientific know-how. For 15 years, as managing partner, Kerstin Pettenkofer built up and managed an education, political consulting and communication company, focussing on questions of development policy and sustainability discourse. According to the motto "Walk the Talk", she implemented a strategic sustainability management in the company. The agency was one of the first in the industry to make sustainability the core of the business model. Since summer 2018, Kerstin Pettenkofer has focused exclusively on strategic sustainability consulting. This includes process design and monitoring as well as facilitation, training, coaching and moderations in national and international contexts.
Jan Philipp Rohde is Policy Officer for environment, climate and sustainability at the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB). He mainly focusses on climate-related changes of the economy and just transition. Before he worked on different aspects of structural and environmental policy at the DGB. Jan Philipp Rohde studied economics in Berlin and Limerick and holds a Master degree in Public Economics.
Dr. Jeanette Sánchez Zurita has been the Director of the Division “Natural Ressources” of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL) since 2017. She holds a Master in Economy ((Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales, Flacso-Ecuado) and Regional Planning (University of Texas) and a doctorate in public policy and social transformation from the Universidad Autónoma Barcelona. Jeanette Sánchez Zurita was the Ecuadorian minister for social development (2009-2011) and social and economic inclusion (2007 – 2009). Her extensive international research and academic activities include a professorship in macroeconomics and economic policy at Universidad Central del Ecuador and numerous publications. The most recent publications are “Recursos naturales, medio ambiente y sustentabilidad: 70 años de pensamiento en la CEPAL” (Natural resources, environment and sustainability: 70 years of thinking at the CEPAL) (2019) and „Estado de bienestar, políticas publicas a desigualdad interétnica: reflexiones para una análisis aplicada en Ecuador“ (State of well-being, public policies and interethnic inequality: Theoretic reflections for an applied analysis in Ecuador) (2018).
Christoph works for the „Laboratory for new economic ideas“ since 2014, focussing on degrowth, (transformative) education, the relationship between humans and nature and cultural change, time wealth, and alternative models of society.
Gerhard Schick, who holds a doctorate in economics, is a board member and co-initiator of the association Bürgerbewegung Finanzwende. He was a member of the Bundestag from 2005 to 2018, from September 2007 financial policy spokesman for the Bündnis 90/Die Grünen parliamentary group, and from 2011 a member of the financial market committee of the German Bundestag. He has resigned his Bundestag mandate for work in the non-governmental organisation as of 31 December 2018. Gerhard Schick has made a name for himself by his reappraisal of the financial crisis and the CumEx tax fraud.
Sam Smith is the director of the Just Transition Centre, working for a just transition for workers and communities. The Centre was established by the International Trade Union Confederation and partners to help unions and their allies get concrete plans for just transition at all levels. Previously Sam was the global climate and energy leader for WWF, the world's largest conservation organization. She also served as the Director of WWF’s Arctic Programme, working with communities, indigenous peoples organizations, and government. Sam has held senior roles within the New Energy division of Statoil in Norway, leading teams on CO2 projects as well as commercial management of large-scale renewable energy projects. Sam started her career as a corporate litigation attorney specializing in finance in the United States. She received multiple awards for rights-based pro bono work on racial justice, reproductive rights and poverty. Sam has degrees in history and law from the University of California, Berkeley.
Toralf Staud is an award-winning journalist and author focussing on climate communication. For the portal “klimafakten.de” he uncovers climate myths, and trains climate crisis experts to communicate outside of their bubble.
Jochen Steinhilber has been Head of the Global Policy and Development department of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) since 2010 and is the contact person with regard to fundamental international policy issues. Previously, he headed the FES office in São Paulo. Mr Steinhilber studied Politics and Political Economics at the University of Marburg.
Anna Sundström is the Secretary general ofOlof Palme International Center – the umbrella organization for the Swedish labour movement. Its international network enables cooperation with global partners for progressive development that advances democracy, equality and sustainability. The Center runs around 200 projects in 20 countries worldwide. Ms Sundström holds a Bachelor of Political Science and a European master's degree in humanitarian assistance. She has previously worked as international secretary of the Swedish Social Democratic Women’s Organization, as international secretary and policy advisor in the national parliament and at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
Þórunn was elected president of BHM in 2015. She was a Member of Parliament (Althing) from 1999 to 2011 for the Social Democratic Alliance and Minister for the Environment from 2007 to 2009. Þórunn has been politically active for most of her adult life. She joined the Women‘s Alliance (a feminist political organisation) in the nineties and work as their national coordinator for three years. She has also worked for the Icelandic Red Cross and the International Federation of Red Cross/red Crescent Societies in Tanzania and Azerbaijan.
Pella Thiel is chairperson of End Ecocide Sweden and an expert in the UN Harmony with Nature initiative. She is an ecologist and activist who works for a society in harmony with nature and is the co-founder of Swedish hubs of international networks like Swedish Transition Network, End Ecocide Sweden, Save the Rainforest Sweden and the Swedish Network for Rights of Nature. Pella Thiel also teaches ecopsychology and is a part of the eco-psychology/art/activist NGO Lodyn. She coordinated the first three Rights of Nature Conferences in Sweden and has an MSc in Ecology from Stockholm University with a thesis on rainforest restoration in Ecuador.
Frans Timmermans is the Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, leading its work on the European Green Deal – Europe’s roadmap to becoming the first climate-neutral continent – and the first European Climate Law to enshrine the 2050 climate-neutrality target into EU law. Frans Timmermans has been a European Commissioner since 2014. From 2014-2019 he was First Vice-President of the European Commission, in charge of Better Regulation, Inter-Institutional Relations, the Rule of Law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights. Prior to this, he was the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs (2012-2014) and Dutch Minister of European Affairs (2007-2010). He has also been a Member of the Dutch Parliament for PES member party Partij van de Arbeid (PvdA) (2010-2012 and 1998-2007).
Karin Wallensteen has been the State Secretary to Prime Minister Stefan Löfven since 2019, her area of responsibility is Foreign Affairs and the Security Policy Council. She was the Director in the Prime Minister’s Office from 2016-2019 and Counselor at the Embassy of Sweden in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 2013-2016. Prior positions include diverse posts in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Employment.
Franziska Wehinger is heading the regional energy and climate project in the Middle East and North Africa of Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. Based in Amman, she advises the European Commission on energy and climate policies in the EU neighborhood. Prior to this, Franziska Wehinger was working on sustainability standards in EU trade agreements in the Department of Asia and the Pacific. At the German Development Institute (GDI/DIE) she worked on International Climate Policies and Sustainable value chains.
Bert De Wel is an ecological economist who has been working on the nexus between social and environmental issues for more than 25 years. After ten years as environment and energy policy advisor at the Belgian union ACV-CSC, he became the climate policy officer at the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) in 2018. The concept of Just Transition - promoted by the unions in dialogue with other stakeholders and governments - is a strong driver to combine environmental protection with poverty eradication and social justice. Bert is the focal point for the unions at the UNFCCC, UNEA and the GCF.
Dr. Kirsten Westphal is based at the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP), the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin. Dr. Westphal is assigned for International Energy Relations and Global Energy Security at the institute. She as member of the German Hydrogen Council. She was a Member of the Expert Panel to the Global Commission on the Geopolitics of Energy Transformation in 2018-2019 and contributed to the Commission’s Report “A New World”, published in 2019. In parallel, she has been leading the Project "Geopolitics of Energy Transformation 2030 (GET 2030)" supported by the German Federal Foreign Office. Over the course of 2019/2020 the follow-up project (EU GET 2030) examines the geopolitics of the energy transformation from the EU’s perspective. This project involves IFRI in Paris, PISM in Warsaw; and Real Instituto Elcano in Madrid. It is supported by the German Federal Foreign Office. Since 2015, Westphal has been conducting a series of Track 2 dialogues with Russia and Poland, with the kind support of the German Federal Foreign Office. Previously, she has worked as a consultant in the energy industry. She has experience in international election observation missions of the OSCE and EU. She is on the Advisory Board of the Regional Centre for Energy Policy Research (REKK) Foundation, Budapest and on the Editorial Board of the European Energy Journal. Westphal studied political science, communication science and history, and has published widely on international energy relations and EU external energy relations.
Harm-Berend Wiegmann is Head of Utilities Policies with the Federal Board of ver.di - the United Services Trade Union of Germany. He is working on policies regarding the energy sector as well as water and waste management. Before he joined ver.di in October 2019, he was working as Energy Policy Officer at the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) for six years and in the office of German MP Uwe Beckmeyer. Wiegmann studied political science in Bremen, Ljubljana and Potsdam.