Scholars
Anna Fünfgeld
University of Hamburg
Based in
Germany
Europe
Anna Fünfgeld is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Sociology and the Cluster of Excellence ‘Climate, Climatic Change, and Society’ (CLICCS) at the University of Hamburg, and an associate fellow at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA). Trained in political science, anthropology, and human geography, her research focuses on energy and climate politics, particularly climate obstruction, right-wing backlash, infrastructure, and green extractivism, with a regional focus on Indonesia, Brazil, and Germany. Drawing on critical political economy, Gramscian theory, and political ecology, she examines how socio-ecological transformations are shaped and contested in diverse political contexts and across scales. She co-authors the annual ‘Climate Transformation Outlook for Germany’.
Country(ies) of Specialty
Brazil Germany IndonesiaFocus areas of expertise
Climate policy and politics Climate Justice Fossil fuels Renewable energyHow to Connect
Publications
Books
Aykut, Stefan, Anna Fünfgeld, Eduardo Gonçalves Gresse, Lea Frerichs, and Lukas Hüppauff (2025): Klimawende Ausblick 2025. Plausibilität der Transformation in Zeiten von anti-ökologischem Backlash und abnehmender Resonanz. Bielefeld: Transcript. URL: https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-8097-3/klimawende-ausblick-2025/
Fünfgeld, Anna. No Power to Change? Energy Hegemony and Transformismo in Indonesia. Doctoral dissertation, University of Freiburg, 2022.
Fünfgeld, Anna (2016): Staatlichkeit als lokale Praxis: Kohleabbau und Widerstand in Indonesien. Berlin [u.a.]: LIT-Verlag. Southeast Asian Modernities Series 16.
Articles
Fünfgeld, Anna (2026): A critical political economy of climate obstruction: forests, fossils, and foundations of developmentalism in Indonesia. Climate and Development: 1–11. DOI: 10.1080/17565529.2025.2609768
Haas, Tobias, Hendrik Sander, Anna Fünfgeld, and Franziska Mey (2025): Climate Obstruction at Work: Right-Wing Populism and the German Heating Law. Energy Research & Social Science 123. DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2025.104034
Forough, Mohammadbagher, and Anna Fünfgeld (2025): The empty signifier of ‘connectivity’: how infrastructure reorders the world. Review of International Political Economy: 1-25. DOI: 10.1080/09692290.2025.2504457
Marquardt, Jens; Fünfgeld, Anna; Elsässer, Joshua (2023): Institutionalizing Climate Change Mitigation in the Global South: Current Trends and Future Research. Earth System Governance. DOI: 10.1016/j.esg.2022.100163
Ordonez, Jose Antonio, Jakob, Michael; Steckel, Jan Christoph; Fünfgeld, Anna (2021): Coal, Power and Coal-Powered Politics in Indonesia. Environmental Science and Policy (123), pp. 44–57. DOI: 10.1016/j.envsci.2021.05.007
Fünfgeld, Anna (2019): The Dream of ASEAN Connectivity. Imagining Infrastructure in Southeast Asia. In: Pacific Affairs 92 (2), pp. 287–311. DOI: 10.5509/2019922287
Fünfgeld, Anna (2018): ASEAN Energy Connectivity: Energy, Infrastructure and Regional Cooperation in Southeast Asia. In: The Indonesian Quarterly 46 (4), pp. 315–343.
Fünfgeld, Anna (2016): The State of Coal Mining in East Kalimantan: Towards a Political Ecology of Local Stateness. Austrian Journal of South-East Asian Studies (ASEAS), Special Issue on Socio-Ecological Conflicts in Southeast Asia, 9(1): 147-161. DOI: 10.14764/10.ASEAS-2016.1-9
Other publications
Kammler, Lea, Anna Fünfgeld, Stefan C. Aykut, Jan Wilkens, and Eduardo Gonçalves Gresse (2025): COP der Wahrheit? Die Klimakonferenz COP30 in Belém zwischen gebrochenen Versprechen und neuen Allianzen. Global Policy Forum, December 2025. URL: https://www.globalpolicy.org/de/publication/cop-der-wahrheit.
Fünfgeld, Anna, and Lea Kammler (2025): Nickel Mining in Indonesia. Neocolonial Extractivist Practices in Indonesian Nickel Mining and Processing. In Green at Home, Harm Abroad: Germany’s Role in Global Resource Exploitation, edited by Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, 23-32. URL: https://www.rosalux.de/en/publication/id/53519/green-at-home-harm-abroad
Fünfgeld, Anna; Wischermann, Jörg (2024): Why Just Energy Transition Partnerships Are Not Enough. GIGA Focus Global (2). URL: https://www.giga-hamburg.de/de/publikationen/giga-focus/why-just-energy-transition-partnerships-are-not-enough
Ordonez, Jose Antonio; Steckel, Jan C.; Jakob, Michael; Fünfgeld, Anna (2022): Coal, Power and Coal-Powered Politics in Indonesia. In: The Political Economy of Coal: Obstacles to Clean Energy Transitions, edited by M. Jakob and J. C. Steckel, 281–99. Environment for Development. New York, NY: Routledge.
Fünfgeld, Anna (2021): “Brazil Must Be Back!” – but Real Climate Action Is Possible Only After Bolsonaro. GIGA Focus Lateinamerika (12). URL: https://www.giga-hamburg.de/de/publikationen/28743158-brasilien-muss-wieder-da-sein-effektiver-klimaschutz-erst-nach-bolsonaro-m%c3%b6glich/
Fünfgeld, Anna (2020): Coal vs Climate: Indonesia’s Energy Policy Contradicts Its Climate Goals. GIGA Focus Asia (2). URL: https://www.giga-hamburg.de/en/publication/coal-vs-climate-indonesias-energy-policy-contradicts-its-climate-goals
Fünfgeld, Anna (2019): Hegemony and Varieties of Contestation: Social Movements and the Struggle over Coal-Based Energy Production in Indonesia. In: F. Anderl et al. (eds.): Rule and Resistance beyond the Nation State. London, New York: Rowman and Littlefield International, pp. 89–114.
Fünfgeld, Anna (2019): Just Energy? – Structures of Energy (In)Justice and the Indonesian Coal Sector. In: T. Jafry (Hg.): Routledge Handbook of Climate Justice. London: Routledge, pp. 222–236.
Fünfgeld, Anna (2018): Fossil Fuels and the Question of Justice. Insights from Indonesian Energy Politics. Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung. Berlin (Analysen, 44). URL: https://www.rosalux.de/en/publication/id/38632/fossil-fuels-and-the-question-of-justice/
Fünfgeld, Anna (2017): Claiming Justice Matters in Energy Politics. Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung. Berlin (Policy Paper, 2/2017). URL: https://www.rosalux.de/en/publication/id/38032/claiming-justice-matters-in-energy-policy/
Fünfgeld, Anna (2017): Governing Resources, Governing People: From Timber to Coal in East Kalimantan. Occasional Paper Series, Southeast Asian Studies at Freiburg University, OP No. 37.