Prof. Dr. Katharine Rietig

Katharine Rietig is professor of sustainability and international politics and joint director of the Centre for Energy, a Newcastle University Centre of Research Excellence, with a focus on renewable energies. Her research examines how the effectiveness of sustainability policies can be improved. Her particular focus is on the role of learning, nonstate actors and multilevel governance dynamics between countries and the United Nations, and how these dynamics facilitate policy change for more effective sustainability governance.

Katharine has taught courses and supervised projects on a broad range of sustainability and public policy themes, especially on climate change, international organisations, public policy/administration and sustainable economic development in the areas of energy, transport, agriculture/forestry, and industry. She holds a PhD in environmental policy and development, as well as an MS in environmental policy and regulation from the London School of Economics and Political Science and an MA in political science, international law, and economics from the Ludwig Maximilian University Munich.

RCC Research Project: Policy Symbiosis in Sustainable Development: Climate Action and the Forestry Sector

Selected Publications:

• “What Next for International Climate Politics? Learning and Multilevel Reinforcing Dynamics in the UNFCCC.” International Affairs 101, no. 4 (2025): 1301–21. https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiaf073.
• Innovative Social Sciences Teaching and Learning: Facilitating Students’ Personal Growth and Career Success. Palgrave Macmillan, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41452-7.
• with Christine Peringer, Sarina Theys, and Jecel Censoro. “Unanimity or Standing Aside? Reinterpreting Consensus in United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Negotiations.” International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics 23, no. 3 (2023): 221–34. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10784-023-09593-y.
• with Sylvia Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen and Michelle Scobie. “Agency Dynamics of International Environmental Agreements: Actors, Contexts, and Drivers.” In “Lessons Learnt from International Environmental Aggreements: Celebrating 20 Years of International Environmental Agreements (INEA),” ed. Joyeeta Gupta, Courtney Vegelin, and Nicky Pouw. Special issue, International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics 22, no. 2 (2022): 353–72. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10784-022-09571-w.
• “Accelerating Low Carbon Transitions via Budgetary Processes? EU Climate Governance in Times of Crisis.” In “EU Climate and Energy Governance in Times of Crisis,” ed. Sebastian Oberthür, Andrew J. Jordan, and Ingmar von Homeyer. Special issue, Journal of European Public Policy 28, no. 7 (2021): 1018–37. https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2021.1918217.
• Learning in Governance: Climate Policy Integration in the European Union. MIT Press, 2021. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/13662.001.0001.