Press Release19.12.2019, Berlin

Karen Pittel new co-chair of WBGU

Karen Pittel has been elected as the new co-chair of the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU). She succeeds Dirk Messner, who will become President of the Federal Environment Agency on 1 January 2020 and thus leave WBGU. Karen Pittel shares the WBGU Chair with Sabine Schlacke, the present Co-Chair.

Karen Pittel is Director of the Ifo Center for Energy, Climate and Exhaustible Resources in Munich (Leibniz Institute for Economic Research) and Professor of Economics, esp. Energy, Climate and Exhaustible Natural Resources, Faculty of Economics, University of Munich. The economist is a member of the Bavarian Climate Council and Vice-Chair of the Steering Committee of the Science Platform on the Climate Protection Plan 2050. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the "Energy Systems of the Future" project of the German Academies of Science. Karen Pittel's research focuses on sustainability and long-term economic development as well as climate and energy policy. She has spent extended periods of research in the USA, Canada, Switzerland and Norway. She has been a WBGU member since 2016.