Experts on climate and energy transition at MCI

How do international climate conferences work and what role does the European Union play in this issue at the global level? Why has climate change already become part of everyday life at central banks? How does the energy regulator CEER represent the interests of consumers in Europe?

Three distinguished experts will illuminate these questions with MCI students as part of the course "Sustainability & Social Sciences" in November. We are pleased to welcome Georgios Kostakos (FOGGS) and Christina Riegler (CEER) via videoconference from Brussels. Wolfgang Pointner (ÖNB) will be on site to interact with the students.

Georgios Kostakos is Co-founder and Executive Director of the Brussels-based Foundation for Global Governance and Sustainability (FOGGS), which focuses on the need for a new globalization narrative, rethinking education for the digital era, the establishment of a Global Resilience Council, and supporting SDG implementation. About half of his thirty-year-long work experience has been with the UN, including with the Executive Office of the UN Secretary-General, the High-level Panel on Global Sustainability, and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Christina Riegler is Working Group Coordinator at the Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER) in Brussels, focusing on international relations and gas topics. Before joining CEER, Christina worked for an Austrian energy supplier and completed a graduate traineeship with the European External Action Service. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Nottingham, a Master’s in Politics and Culture from Leiden University in the Netherlands, as well as a Master’s in International Affairs from the Johns Hopkins University – SAIS Europe in Bologna, Italy.

Wolfgang Pointner is an advisor in the Economics Department of the Österreichische Nationalbank (OeNB). He has been working on financial stability risks of climate change and represents the OeNB in national and international for an on climate change issues. Previously, he held positions in the European Commission, the Austrian ministry of finance and as economic counselor to the federal chancellor of Austria. Next to his research interest in climate-related financial risks, Mr Pointner who holds an economics degree from the University of Vienna has published on financial market regulation, innovation funding and financing conditions for enterprises in Austria.

“The European Green Deal is a comprehensive package of EU measures on the road to carbon neutrality. This eco-social transformation involves the complete reconstruction of our previous foundations of growth, values and value creation. It is people like you and me, in all professional generations, who are already working on this transformation. And what could be better than inviting these specialists to talk directly with our students?" says Verena Ringler, director of the AGORA European Green Deal and Senior Lecturer at MCI, who invited the experts and enabled this exchange.