Dr. Lukas Fesenfeld

Lukas finished his PhD (D.Sc. ETH) at the Chair of International Political Economy and Environmental Politics and has since then joined the Energy Politics Group at ETH Zurich. He is now lecturer at the ETH Institute of Science, Technology and Policy and senior researcher at the external page Policy Analysis and Environmental Governance group at the University of Bern and the Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research.

He received his Bachelors of Liberal Arts (B.L.A.) from the University College Maastricht (Maastricht University's honours programme) in European Law, International Relations and Political Economy. He holds a Master of Public Policy (MPP/M.Sc.) from the Hertie School of Governance (Berlin) with a focus on Political Economy and Policy Analysis. He also studied at the University of Seville and the Humboldt-​Viadrina School of Governance (Berlin). Lukas is co-​founder of the non-​profit organisation external page NAHhaft – Institute for sustainable food strategies. He gathered further professional and research experiences with the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change, the Hertie School of Governance, United Nations and the GLS Gemeinschaftsbank. Lukas academic work has been supported by the German Academic Foundation, Mercator Foundation and the Heinrich Böll Foundation.

His main research interests lie in the field of (international) environmental governance, political economy and political psychology. His dissertation concentrated on the political feasibility of transformative climate policies. Lukas is particularly interested in the nexus of food and climate policy. He also conducts research on public support for transport and mobility policies. During his PhD Lukas has conducted several comparative, large-​scale survey and field experiments in China, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United States to study public support for policies reducing the environmental impact of the food and transport sector. In his research Lukas enjoys to combine different methodological approaches, such as survey and field experiments, event-​history analysis, social network analysis, machine learning, qualitative interviews, focus groups and process tracing.

Fesenfeld, L.P., & Rinscheid, A. Emphasizing Urgency of Climate Change Is Insufficient to Increase Policy Support. One Earth (forthcoming). external page Link to text

Fesenfeld, L.P., Sun, Y., Wicki, M., & Bernauer, T. The Role and Limits of Strategic Framing for Promoting Sustainable Consumption and Policy. (2021). Global Environmental Change (forthcoming).

Huber, R., L.P. Fesenfeld, T. Bernauer. (2020). Political Populism, Responsiveness, and Public Support for Climate Mitigation. Climate Policy. external page Link to text

Fesenfeld, L.P., M. Wicki, Y. Sun, and T. Bernauer. (2020). Policy packaging can make food system transformation feasible. Nature Food, 1, 173-182. external page Link to text

Wicki, M., Fesenfeld, L. P., and Bernauer, T. (2019). In Search of Politically Feasible Policy‐Packages for Sustainable Transport: Insights from Choice Experiments in China, Germany, and the USA. Environmental Research Letters, 14(8). external page Link to text

Fesenfeld, L.P., Schmidt, T. & Schrode, A. (2018). Climate Policy for Short-and Long-lived Climate Pollutants. Nature Climate Change. external page Link to text  

Fesenfeld, L. P. (2016). Governing Urban Food Systems in the Long Run: Comparing Best Practices in Sustainable Food Procurement Regulations. GAIA-Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society, 25(4), 260-270. Link to text  

Fesenfeld, L.P., Stuckatz, J. Kiesgen, T., Ruß, D., Summerson, I., & Klimaschewski, M. (2014). It’s the Motivation, Stupid! The Influence of Motivation of Secondary Currency Initiators on the Currencies’ Success. The International Journal of Community Currency Research. external page Link to text  

Fesenfeld, L.P. (2020). The Political Feasibility of Transformative Climate Policy – Public Opinion about Transforming Food and Transport Systems. ETH Dissertation, ETH Research Collection. Access here