Christian Flachsland

Christian Flachsland is Professor of Climate Policy and Director of the Centre for Sustainability at the Hertie School. He also serves as a Research Fellow at the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC), where he previously led the Governance working group. His research focuses on climate policy design, energy governance, and the political economy of sustainability transitions, with particular emphasis on Germany and the European Union.

Flachsland's recent publications analyze climate institutions across Germany, UK, Sweden, and Australia, and develop frameworks for anticipatory policy mix construction in road transport. His work combines machine learning literature mapping with comparative institutional analysis, appearing in top journals like Science and Nature Climate Change. Current projects examine EU carbon border adjustment mechanisms and reflexive governance in climate policy evaluation.

As co-coordinator of Governance research in the BMBF-funded Kopernikus-Ariadne project, he assesses climate policy options for Germany and Europe through multi-country institutional comparisons and policy pathway assessments. His work bridges academic research with policy advice, including participation in the IPCC Scoping Meeting for its Sixth Assessment Report.