Tobias Kalt

Dr. phil. Tobias Kalt is a Research Professor at the Berlin School of Economics and Law (HWR Berlin) and a political scientist specialising in socio-ecological transformation, energy justice, and the political economy of the global hydrogen economy. His work combines political-ecological and political-economic perspectives to analyse power relations, conflicts, and justice issues arising from global energy and industrial transformations.

Research focus:

• Socio-ecological transformation and transformation conflicts
• North–South relations, (green) extractivism, and energy justice
• Work and ecology, with particular attention to trade unions and employees in transformation processes
• (Neo-)Gramscian approaches in political ecology

Within the research project „Industrial Employees in Transformation“ (funded by the Hans Böckler Foundation), Dr Kalt investigates how industrial employees experience and shape transformation processes, how they articulate justice concerns within organisational change, and how these dynamics influence intra- and inter-organisational transitions.

Across his 2021–2025 publications, a clear thematic trajectory emerges: from domestic labour–climate coalitions in the German coal phase-out, through trade-union strategies in green transitions, to a critical interrogation of the emerging global hydrogen economy. His recent work increasingly centres on the Global South, interrogating green extractivism, hydrogen justice, and the continuities of colonial patterns in renewable-energy supply chains.

Selected collaborators: Johanna Tunn, Franziska Müller, Jesko Hennig, Jenny Simon, Anne Tittor, Imeh Ituen, Nina Glatzer.

Contact: Tobias.Kalt@hwr-berlin.de