Dr Kat Buchmann

Kat is a postdoctoral researcher at the Global Sustainability Institute, working primarily on the MEDEAS (energy modelling) project. For the SHAPE ENERGY project, Kat worked on transport decarbonisation as well as energy start-ups and ecovillages in Germany and Israel.

Background

Kat’s background is in diplomacy, with a focus on climate and energy frames and discourses employed by diplomats. She has a PhD from the University of Cambridge.

Before joining the GSI, Kat was a consultant for several years at GIZ, the German government agency for international and development cooperation, in their Global Partnerships department, as well at the OECD, focusing on knowledge sharing with emerging economies. For the Jewish National Fund, Kat advised and narrated a video series with eight episodes on transport decarbonisation in Germany and Israel, aimed at science communication to high school pupils.

Spoken Languages

French, English, German, reading knowledge of Spanish

Research interests

• Climate and renewable energy diplomacy
• Framing of environmental issues
• Transport and hypermobility
• Democracy and environmental degradation
• Acceptance of new technologies
• South-South knowledge sharing

Areas of research supervision

Kat is especially interested in supervising research on climate and energy policy. She supervised undergraduate students in the European politics module at the University of Cambridge in the department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS). Kat has also supervised MA students in the summer King’s College course, on contemporary Chinese politics.

Teaching

At the University of Maastricht, Kat taught a seminar on lobbying in the EU compared to China and the USA.

Qualifications

• PhD Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge
• Advanced MA European Union International Relations and Diplomacy, College of Europe (Bruges, Belgium)
• MA International Relations and Modern History, University of St Andrews (First Class)

Selected recent publications

European climate diplomacy with the USA and China (Brill, forthcoming).

Buchmann, K., Heffer, S., 2018. Energy pioneers: energy start-ups and ecovillages in Germany and Israel. Karlsruhe: SHAPE ENERGY.

Buchmann, K., Robison, R. and Foulds, C., 2017. Transport sector decarbonisation – a social sciences and humanities annotated bibliography. Cambridge: SHAPE ENERGY.

Sumpf, P., Klemm, M., Throndsen, W., Büscher, C., Robison, R., Schippl, J., Foulds, C., Buchmann, K., Nikolaev, A. and Kern-Gillard, T., 2017. Energy system optimisation and smart technologies – a social sciences and humanities annotated bibliography. Cambridge: SHAPE ENERGY.

Katrin Buchmann, “Intra-EU Climate Diplomacy”. Paper presented at the UACES (University Association for Contemporary European Studies) Conference, 2011.