Sitemap
A list of all the posts and pages found on the site. For you robots out there, there is an XML version available for digesting as well.
Pages
About Me
Archive Layout with Content
Posts by Category
Posts by Collection
CV
Markdown
Page not in menu
Page Archive
Portfolio
Research
Sitemap
Posts by Tags
Talk map
Talks and presentations
Teaching
Terms and Privacy Policy
Blog posts
Markdown Generator
Posts
Future Blog Post
Published:
This post will show up by default. To disable scheduling of future posts, edit config.yml and set future: false.
Blog Post number 4
Published:
This is a sample blog post. Lorem ipsum I can’t remember the rest of lorem ipsum and don’t have an internet connection right now. Testing testing testing this blog post. Blog posts are cool.
Blog Post number 3
Published:
This is a sample blog post. Lorem ipsum I can’t remember the rest of lorem ipsum and don’t have an internet connection right now. Testing testing testing this blog post. Blog posts are cool.
Blog Post number 2
Published:
This is a sample blog post. Lorem ipsum I can’t remember the rest of lorem ipsum and don’t have an internet connection right now. Testing testing testing this blog post. Blog posts are cool.
Blog Post number 1
Published:
This is a sample blog post. Lorem ipsum I can’t remember the rest of lorem ipsum and don’t have an internet connection right now. Testing testing testing this blog post. Blog posts are cool.
portfolio
Portfolio item number 1
Short description of portfolio item number 1
Portfolio item number 2
Short description of portfolio item number 2
publications
Mobilizing Europe’s Full Hydrogen Potential: Entry-Points for Action by the EU and Its Member States
Published in HYPAT Discussion Papers, 2023 (with Rainer Quitzow, Andrea Triki, Jakob Wachsmuth, Joshua Garcia, Benjamin Lux, and Almudena Nunez)
This policy paper takes stock of ongoing hydrogen policy developments in Europe, placing particular attention on how the European Union (EU) can most effectively mobilize its domestic hydrogen potential. While the paper acknowledges that hydrogen imports from countries outside the EU are likely to play a significant role, it departs from the premise that the large-scale mobilization of cost-competitive domestic resources is an essential element for ensuring the EU’s energy security and industrial leadership in the sector. It begins with an overview of future renewable energy demand in Europe within the context of decarbonization, on the one hand, and potentials for renewable hydrogen production and their distribution across the EU, on the other. It then contrasts this with hydrogen-related targets and announced investments in the Member States. Against this background, the paper provides a review of key EU-level policies, focusing on the promotion of hydrogen production and use. Questions related to infrastructure for storage and transport of hydrogen are beyond the scope of the paper and are not considered. Building on the policy review, the final section proposes five recommendations for further development of EU hydrogen policy and funding schemes.
The Effect of Cap-and-Trade on Sectoral Emissions: Evidence from California
Published in Energy Policy, 2024 (with Christian Lessmann)
We study the impact of California’s cap-and-trade system on carbon emissions in the electricity and industrial sectors. We use US state-level panel data covering the period 2005–2019 and apply the synthetic control method to construct an optimal counterfactual for per capita emissions in each sector. In our experiment, emissions in the power sector fall below counterfactual emissions by 48%. In the industrial sector, the state’s emissions are 6% higher than those of the synthetic control unit by the end of the observation period. Thus, cap-and-trade failed to deliver decarbonization across both sectors. While the abatement in the power sector was facilitated by complementary policies and driven by a switch from natural gas to renewables, California’s policy mix has disincentivized emission reductions in the industrial sector.
Hydrogen Policy in Brazil: Emerging Path to Green Re-Industrialization?
Published in The Geopolitics of Hydrogen, 2025 (with Flávio Lira and Rainer Quitzow)
Brazil has set the ambitious goal of becoming the world’s most competitive hydrogen producer by 2030, leveraging its vast renewable energy potential. The development of a market for low-carbon hydrogen and ammonia is central to Brazil’s green industrial policy and its new strategy for re-industrialization. While the country holds strong prospects for green hydrogen production, it presently lags behind current frontrunners, with most low-carbon hydrogen projects still in early stages. The recently introduced Hydrogen Act and accompanying tax credits are pivotal in shaping a policy framework, fostering low-carbon hydrogen production and usage. In the absence of a national hydrogen strategy, some states, most notably Ceará, have pushed ahead attracting considerable investments for hydrogen production and export in the past years. Internationally, Brazil has begun reasserting its engagement in hydrogen governance, hosting key global forums, and advancing bilateral and multilateral hydrogen cooperation. This chapter elaborates on these trends and provides a comprehensive review of policy objectives and initiatives, stakeholders, pilot projects, and international cooperation efforts related to the endeavor of creating a market for low-carbon hydrogen in Brazil.
Reckless subjects, future capital? ‘Youth’ as an object of concern in international health organizations’ discourse
Published in Globalizations, 2025 (with Felix Stadelmann, Laura Pantzerhielm and Anna Holzscheiter)
Contemporary international organizations (IOs) are routinely portrayed as being more accessible to a wide variety of actors than ever before. The recent hyper-institutionalization of youth in international politics testifies to this pluralization, at least quantitatively. This paper traces the historical emergence of youth as an object of concern among health IOs. Covering a period of over 50 years, we analyse semantic fields surrounding youth and find that young people have primarily been portrayed as society’s future capital in development discourses or as a risk-prone group in the context of HIV/AIDS and reproductive health. Only since the beginning of the 21st century can we trace portrayals of youth that emphasize rights, inclusion and engagement in global health. Our study addresses an empirical research gap on youth in global health and prompts us to critically re-evaluate the optimistic liberal assessments that have marked International Relations (IR) theories on the ‘opening-up’ of IOs.
Managing Role Conflict on the International Stage: How China Balances Its Dual Role in Global Climate Governance
Published in Foreign Policy Analysis, 2026
China has traditionally served as a leader of the Global South in global climate governance, building on its self-identification as a developing country. As expectations rose to contribute more resolutely to global climate action, China found itself confronted with a role conflict. Creating the auxiliary role of climate leader has not resolved this conflict, since the two roles are essentially associated with conflictual expectations. In this paper, I demonstrate how China sustains its dual role by employing three discursive tactics to balance the conflict: role segregation, role supplementation, and role merging. For this purpose, I develop and apply a theoretical framework of role conflict management strategies and associated tactics in foreign policy and international relations. This framework integrates previous literature from the field and some of the foundational interactionist scholarship on role conflict management, thereby contributing to a more systematic understanding of how states navigate role conflict.
Just Climate Obstruction? Mapping Restart Narratives in the German Energy Transition Discourse
Unpublished manuscript (with Finn Haberkost)
In recent debates about the state and prospects of the energy transition, diagnoses of “failure” and calls for a “restart”, “reset” or “reality check” have gained traction. Should these contestations be categorically rejected as climate obstruction, or can some of them contribute constructively to policy learning? To address this question, we examine the German “restart discourse” as an illustrative case to show that, despite strong terminological overlap, the discourse comprises competing narratives with distinct policy demands. Building on the Narrative Policy Framework and a systematic analysis of 81 media articles and policy documents, we distinguish three narratives that structure the restart discourse. The restoration narrative portrays the energy transition as a fundamentally misguided project of a green elite and seeks its rollback. The reorientation narrative criticizes the unbalanced pursuit of climate change mitigation at the cost of economic prosperity and energy security. Finally, the recalibration narrative suggests an adjustment of the policy mix in the light of accumulated experience and changing contextual conditions. Based on this classification, we inductively derive six discursive markers from our sample. In future research, they may be used as a heuristic toolbox for distinguishing obstructive from constructive contestation.
Exposure to Climate Policy Costs and Public Backlash: Evidence from Germany
Unpublished manuscript (with Théo Konc and Jan Steckel)
Climate policies frequently face popular backlash. We build on policy feedback theory to understand the underlying drivers, hypothesizing that exposure to the costs of new climate policy diminishes support for comparable policies and political institutions deemed responsible. We test these propositions for the case of the 2023 German heating reform, which mandated the phase-out of fossil-fuel heating systems in Germany after a contentious public debate. Drawing on survey panel data collected at different stages of the policy process, we find that anticipated exposure to the costs of the policy had no effect on support for other climate policies. However, it caused a significant decline in willingness to pay for further climate policy and trust in government. These effects are particularly pronounced among individuals in low- and middle-income households, suggesting that affordability concerns are a key driver of public backlash to climate policy.
The Geoeconomics of Decarbonizing Energy-Intensive Industries: International Hydrogen Trade or Green Relocation?
Forthcoming in Handbook of Hydrogen (with Laima Eicke, Andreas Goldthau and Rainer Quitzow)
The decarbonization of energy-intensive industries demands large amounts of low-emissions hydrogen, which will not be available at low prices everywhere. Countries with a high potential for renewable energy can capitalize on these resources to produce renewable hydrogen, while others need to rely on imports to decarbonize their industries. Since transporting hydrogen will remain expensive, firms in the steel and chemical industries, among others, might move production sites to countries that produce cheap low-emissions hydrogen. Thus, hydrogen-based decarbonization creates geoeconomic competition and could unsettle the current distribution of energy-intensive value chains. However, renewable energy resources are not the only determinant for future industrial geographies. In this chapter, we review these determinants, discussing the role of resource endowments, transport networks, and technological and financial capacities. Industrial policies are of particular importance for shaping these markets. We therefore show how governments craft hydrogen strategies to align policy mixes with national economic and security objectives. Building on a typology of strategies, we provide an empirical analysis of multiple country cases. Thereby, we illustrate that industrial decarbonization imposes competition, but also potentials for cooperation.
The Political Economy of Carbon Taxes: A Systematic Literature Review
Unpublished manuscript (with Franziska Klein and Jan Steckel)
Carbon taxes have been widely suggested as a tool for climate change mitigation. Yet, uptake is slow and often diluted by politics. Here, we conduct a systematic review of the case study literature in order to improve our understanding of a conducive context for the adoption of carbon taxes. Using an exhaustive search methodology in combination with machine-learning-assisted abstract screening, we identify, review and classify text data from 64 studies, corresponding to 46 policies across 35 jurisdictions. We find that the adoption of carbon taxes is influenced by a variety of objectives, many of which are unrelated to the original idea of pricing environmental pollution. Clustering the data reveals different political economy landscapes, which exhibit distinct barriers for the adoption of carbon taxes. We highlight successful solutions to overcoming such barriers and point out research gaps in the literature.
Carbon Pricing, Green Industrial Policy, and the Evolution of Ideas in EU Climate Policy
Revise & Resubmit
Market environmentalism has traditionally been the dominant paradigm in global climate policy. It views climate change as a market failure and considers carbon pricing the optimal solution. Over the past two decades, a different policy paradigm that builds on the principle of catalytic action has become dominant. This ‘catalytic decarbonization’ paradigm views climate change as an investment problem and demands industrial policy over carbon pricing. I build on these observations to trace the evolution of both sets of ideas in EU climate policy and to identify patterns and mechanisms of change. I find that market environmentalism was particularly dominant in the 1990s and early 2000s. However, it was from the beginning blended with ideas related to catalytic decarbonization. The lack of international commitment to carbon pricing, the momentum for investment-based climate action after the financial crisis, and the simultaneous diffusion of green industrial policy in the late 2000s and early 2010s led the EU to transform its approach to climate policy and made catalytic decarbonization the dominant paradigm. This shift unfolded progressively and did not result in a full abandonment of market environmentalism. Instead, EU institutions served as bricoleurs, repurposing and recombining existing ideas to adapt to changing circumstances.
talks
Talk 1 on Relevant Topic in Your Field
Published:
This is a description of your talk, which is a markdown file that can be all markdown-ified like any other post. Yay markdown!
Tutorial 1 on Relevant Topic in Your Field
Published:
Talk 2 on Relevant Topic in Your Field
Published:
Conference Proceeding talk 3 on Relevant Topic in Your Field
Published:
This is a description of your conference proceedings talk, note the different field in type. You can put anything in this field.
teaching
Politische Ökonomie des Klimawandels (Political Economy of Climate Change)
Undergraduate seminar, Freie Universität Berlin, Otto Suhr Institute for Political Science, 2025
Die Klimakrise stellt uns vor enorme politische Herausforderungen. Konzepte und Theorien der politischen Ökonomie helfen uns, besser zu verstehen, wie wir sie erfolgreich bekämpfen können. Zugleich stellt der Kampf gegen die Klimakrise unser Verständnis von Politik und Wirtschaft vielfach in Frage und fordert uns heraus, grundsätzliche Annahmen der politischen Ökonomie zu hinterfragen. Mit welchen Verteilungs- und Interessenkonflikten sind Regierungen konfrontiert, wenn sie Maßnahmen gegen den Klimawandel ergreifen wollen? Welche Rolle muss der Staat einnehmen, um zu einer tiefgreifenden Dekarbonisierung der Wirtschaft beizutragen und welche Rolle spielen dabei Märkte? Brauchen wir Wirtschaftswachstum für eine erfolgreiche Klimapolitik oder ist Wachstum das eigentliche Problem? Diesen und weiteren Fragen werden wir uns im Rahmen dieses Seminars widmen. Wir werden uns sowohl inhaltlich als auch methodisch mit aktuellen Forschungsbeiträgen beschäftigen, um einen Einblick in zentrale Debatten zur politischen Ökonomie der Klimakrise zu erhalten.
Einführung in die Klimapolitik (Introduction to Climate Politics)
Undergraduate seminar, Freie Universität Berlin, Otto Suhr Institute for Political Science, 2026
Seit über 50 Jahren wissen wir über die Folgen des Klimawandels Bescheid. Trotzdem steigen die globalen Treibhausgasemissionen weiter an. Das 1,5-Grad-Ziel, auf das sich die internationale Staatengemeinschaft 2015 in Paris geeinigt hat, gerät damit zunehmend außer Reichweite. Gleichzeitig wächst der Anteil der erneuerbaren Energien am Strom-Mix weltweit rasant an. In einigen Regionen der Welt sind Erneuerbare mittlerweile günstiger als fossile Energieträger. Viele Staaten haben sich nicht nur ambitionierte Klimaziele gesetzt, sondern auch zahlreiche Policies verabschiedet, um diese zu erreichen. Wie lässt sich diese Gleichzeitigkeit von Erfolg und Misserfolg erklären? Woran scheitert Klimapolitik und warum gelingt sie manchmal doch? Das Seminar bietet einen Einstieg in die politikwissenschaftlichen Debatten rund um diese Fragen. Im ersten Teil des Seminars verfolgen wir die Entstehung des Klimawandels als globales Governance-Problem und beleuchten die Architektur sowie aktuelle Herausforderungen der internationalen Klimapolitik. Im zweiten Teil wenden wir uns der nationalen Klimapolitik zu und analysieren unter anderem, wie Institutionen, Interessen und Ideen politischen Wandel begünstigen und verhindern. Das Seminar umfasst außerdem zwei Methoden-Workshops, in denen wir uns anhand konkreter Beispiele mit der Anwendung qualitativer und quantitativer Methoden in dem Feld befassen.
Theories of Policy Change
Undergraduate seminar, Freie Universität Berlin, Otto Suhr Institute for Political Science, 2026
Society faces numerous problems that are best addressed by the state, ranging from social inequality to climate change. The state's principal mode of problem-solving is policymaking. So, to understand how these problems can be tackled, we need to understand how policymaking works. Why are some policies adopted while others fail, and why do some endure while others experience backlash? In this seminar, we discuss a range of theoretical approaches that explain why, when, and how policy changes. Among these approaches are the advocacy coalition framework, the multiple streams framework, punctuated equilibrium theory, and policy feedback theory. After a short introduction to public policy analysis, students will engage in depth with each of these theories and will learn to apply them to empirical cases in different policy domains.