Klimapolitik: „Urgestein“ Jochen Flasbarth verlässt das Umweltministerium

Berlin - Bundesumweltminister Carsten Schneider (SPD) has lost his Staatssekretär Jochen Flasbarth. A letter from the minister to his colleagues at the Federal Environmental Ministry (BMUKN) states: "Jochen Flasbarth has informed me that he will be leaving the BMUKN and joining the European Climate Foundation next year." The email is reportedly obtained by the Handelsblatt.

Flasbarth has been a beamte Staatssekretär in the environment ministry for nearly nine years, interrupted by four years as a Staatssekretär in the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Environment Minister Schneider describes him in his email as "a cornerstone of German environmental and climate policy."

In the past decades, he has "shaped German, European and international environmental and climate policy in a unique way," the minister says. The 64-year-old Flasbarth was President of the German Nature Conservation Union (Nabu), a department head in the Federal Environmental Ministry and President of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (UBA) before becoming a Staatssekretär for the first time.

Flasbarth will leave the ministry shortly. His successor as Staatssekretär will be Heike Henn, who starts at the beginning of November after serving as the department head for International Climate Policy at the BMUKN. The minister says she is familiar with the institution, its issues and its way of working, and will bring her own experience and perspective to this important role.

Henn has extensive experience in international contexts - including at the development ministry - on climate, energy and environmental policy issues, as well as biodiversity and water management, the minister writes. He looks forward to working with her in her new position. Flasbarth calls her "an intimate friend" and "a fine fellow."

He highly values his strong negotiation skills and clear stance. According to ministry information, Flasbarth will begin his new role in February 2027. The European Climate Foundation (ECF) is a foundation that, according to its own information, supports over 700 organizations in advancing climate protection. Flasbarth will replace Laurence Tubiana as its chief, the French negotiator at the 2015 Paris climate conference.

The 75-year-old was chief of the foundation for ten years. She is considered one of the architects of the Paris Climate Agreement, which obliges states to limit global warming to well below two degrees Celsius and to take efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees. More: Risks "for millions of rental households": Experts warn of higher gas prices - how much will it cost?