Prof. Dr. Claudia Kemfert

Prof. Dr. Claudia Kemfert has headed the Energy, Transport, Environment Department at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin) since 2004 and is Professor of Energy Economics and Energy Policy at Leuphana University. Until 2019, she was Professor of Energy Economics and Sustainability at the Hertie School of Governance (HSoG). From 2004 to 2009, she held the professorship of environmental economics at Humboldt University.

Claudia Kemfert was appointed to the German Advisory Council on the Environment at the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety in 2016. She was an advisor to EU President José Manuel Barroso and serves on advisory boards of various research institutions as well as federal and state ministries and the EU Commission. Claudia Kemfert was a member of the High Level Expert Group of the EU Commissioner for the Environment and the Advisory Group on Energy of the European Commission (DG Research). Since 2011, she has been a member of the Presidium of the German Association of the Club of Rome. She acts as a juror for various science and environmental awards. In 2012, she was appointed by Norbert Röttgen (CDU) to his shadow cabinet as Energy Minister in North Rhine-Westphalia and in 2013 by Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel (SPD) as Energy Commissioner in Hesse.

Claudia Kemfert studied economics at the universities of Bielefeld and Oldenburg (doctorate in 1998) and Stanford. During a research stay, she was at the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) in Milan (1998). From January 1999 to April 2000, she was head of the junior research group at the Institute for the Rational Use of Energy at the University of Stuttgart. From 2000 to 2004, Claudia Kemfert held a position as junior professor and headed a junior research group at the University of Oldenburg. She was the first junior professor to be appointed to a full professorship. She leads various research projects on energy and environmental policy strategies and is active in numerous networks such as the Energy Modeling Forum (EMF) at Stanford University.
In 2006, Claudia Kemfert was honored as a top researcher in the Eleven of Science by the DFG, the Helmholtz and the Leibniz Association. In 2011, she received the Urania Medal and the B.A.U.M Environmental Award in the Science category, and in 2016, she received the German Solar Award and the Adam Smith Prize for Market-based Environmental Policy. She publishes her research results in high-ranking scientific journals and published the book entitled „Die andere Klima-Zukunft - Innovation statt Depression" in the fall of 2008. In February 2013, her book "SKampf um Strom" was published, in which she describes the myths in the energy policy debate. This was followed by the English-language version "The battle about electricity" in December 2013. In 2017, her book "The fossil empire strikes back - Why we must defend the energy transition" was published. Her latest book „Mondays for Future - Freitags demonstrieren, Samstags diskutieren und am Montag anpacken und umsetzen“  was published in spring 2020.