Tilman Santarius

Tilman Santarius is a renowned researcher and policy expert focusing on the intersection of Digitalization, Global Justice, Climate Policy, Sustainable Economics, and World Trade & Agriculture. Since September 2024, he has led the German Climate Consortium (DKK), representing key players in German climate research. Previously, he initiated the European research network Digitalization for Sustainability – Science in Dialogue (D4S) (2020–2022), funded by the Robert Bosch Stiftung, and co-founded the FrohLaWi e.V. solidarity agriculture association in 2020.

• Education: Visiting Scholar at University of California, Berkeley (2013–2014), Energy Resources Group.
• Research: His work on rebound effects and digital sufficiency critically examines how digitalization can align with deep sustainability goals, including risks like increased resource use and opportunities for policy innovation.
• Projects: Led the Green Consumption Assistant project (2020–2023), developing AI systems to promote sustainable consumption, and contributed to the Bits & Bäume conference series connecting tech and sustainability communities.

His publications analyze the environmental impacts of digital technologies, trade policies, and sufficiency strategies. He received the Christiane Busch-Lüty Förderpreis from the Ecological Economics Association (VÖÖ) for his dissertation on rebound effects. Santarius also served on the supervisory board of Greenpeace Deutschland e.V. (2016–2024) and co-chaired the Trade Working Group at the Forum Environment & Development since 2002.