Captain of German climate diplomacy: Flasbarth gives up

The interesting thing about this personality is the timing: Jochen Flasbarth, the civil servant state secretary in the Federal Environment Ministry, is giving up his high office and instead becoming head of the “European Climate Foundation”. One month before the start of the 2026 UN Climate Change Conference (COP31) in Antalya. Civil servant state secretaries are the captains in the engine room of politics and Jochen Flasbarth's specialty was international climate diplomacy.

A so-called pre-COP is meeting on the Fiji Islands and in Tuvalu until Thursday. In advance, Flasbarth declared this meeting to be “an important moment to explore political options for agreement before the World Climate Conference in Antalya”. Flasbarth is currently actively involved in the “important momentum” at this upstream conference. The political agreement will have to take place in November without him.

A spokeswoman for the Federal Environment Ministry confirmed to taz that COP31 in Antalya will take place without him. In addition, his successor has already been determined: Heike Henn will be the new State Secretary; she is currently heading the department for international environmental and climate protection in the ministry. World climate conferences always begin with the Bonn Spring Conference; controversial issues leading up to the big COP in November are then negotiated at interim meetings and pre-COPs, such as those currently taking place in the Pacific. A process in which Heike Henn worked closely.

The career of the now 64-year-old is rapid: at the age of 16, Jochen Flasbarth joined the “German Association for Bird Protection” and at the age of 21 he was elected youth representative. In 1990 there was also a reunification in German nature conservation: the Bird Protection Association West and the Nature Conservation Association East became the “Nature Protection Association Germany” – Nabu. When Flasbarth was elected president in 1992, he was 30 years old. The qualified economist spent ten years transforming Nabu into a more politically active organization.

And finally, despite the SPD party membership, Federal Environment Minister Jürgen Trittin (Alliance 90/The Greens) brought him into the ministry in 2003 as department head, where he also recommended himself for higher tasks under Federal Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel (SPD). In 2009, Flasbarth became President of the Federal Environment Agency and four years later became State Secretary. That's exactly what he remained for 13 years: nine years in the Ministry of the Environment, four in the Ministry for Economic Cooperation.

How much frustration Flasbarth underlies the current decision can only be speculated: Federal Environment Minister Carsten Schneider (SPD) recently submitted a plan to the UN on how the Federal Republic wants to become fossil-free. At the same time, Federal Economics Minister Katherina Reiche (CDU) is torpedoing such plans with her laws on renewables and grid expansion.

Flasbarth had previously flirted with a move into international politics, for example in 2016 and 2018, when he applied for the top job at UNEP, the United Nations environmental program - but did not succeed. Although the “European Climate Foundation” is not the UN, with its 250 million euros in funding, it is certainly one of the most influential foundations in Europe. Flasbarth will take office in February. And meet an old acquaintance again: Jonathan Pershing is his deputy, Barack Obama's former chief negotiator at the COPs.