The Chair of Globalization and Climate Governance focuses on policies, discourses, transformations and conflicts of climate governance. Our theoretical approach is informed by critical governance research and global environmental governance, debates on climate and energy justice, postcolonial studies, international political economy and development anthropology.

Our research

Three major research topics currently determine our work:

1. With the BMBF research project H2POLITICS we are looking at the socio-ecological and developmental impacts of producing green hydrogen in the Global South for export to Germany for the energy transition here.
2. Within the framework of the BMBF research group GLOCALPOWER (University of Hamburg and University of Kassel), our team explores governance and the political economy of African energy transitions with case studies in Ghana, Zambia, and South Africa. We especially aim at identifying the shape and structure of just energy transitions.
3. Postcolonial climate governance – a newly emerging field of global environmental governance – is relevant for our research with regard to REDD+ programs and political cooperation at the energy/development nexus. We explore modes of governance,resilience, strategies of subjectification and the ‘discovery’ of the subaltern.
4. Research on the Anthropocene and its challenges for theories of international relations is the third and more abstract pillar of our research.

Our teaching

In our seminars we focus on global climate governance and energy governance, as well as on debates about climate justice and fair transformation. We seek to deepen this knowledge in courses on green finance, the Anthropocene and green governmentality.

In the summer semester 2020 we offer a digital course on Global Climate Governance and another course on "International Relations in the Anthropocene". Here we use didactic elements of blended learning, e.g. discussion forums, screencasts, research on case studies, virtual reality and serious games.