The year 2021 was marked by two crises - the pandemic and the great flood disaster.

Good advice is important in both, including that of economists.

What help does the economy need?

How can the climate change be designed with effective measures that are also socially acceptable?

Maja Brankovic

Editor in the economy of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, responsible for “Der Volkswirt”.

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In the field of energy and environmental experts, three researchers stand out who are the big climbers in this year's FAZ economists ranking - Claudia Kemfert, Maja Göpel and Veronika Grimm. They are playing an increasingly important role in the climate and energy transition debate in Germany. The best placed in the group is Claudia Kemfert from the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) in Berlin. Last year she was in 14th place, now she has moved to seventh place, making it into the top ten for the first time.

Maja Göpel's ascent is even steeper than Kemfert's.

The sustainability researcher, who is best known to the wider public as the author of a bestselling non-fiction book on the climate change, climbed from 35th to 17th place.

The third climber is the energy expert and economics expert Veronika Grimm (from 34th to 21st place).

Among the male climate economists, the Potsdam researcher Ottmar Edenhofer made 15th place this year.

Grimm scores in the press

Kemfert's path to the top group of the most influential economists in the country did not come suddenly. You can meet them in the media on all channels, also on television, politicians seek their advice. Kemfert has friends especially on the left wing, but not only: Before the NRW election in 2012, the then Federal Environment Minister and CDU top candidate Norbert Röttgen brought them into his shadow cabinet. Political advice is still her thing: in the survey in the federal and state ministries, she came in fifth place.

Unlike Claudia Kemfert, Maja Göpel is a rather new face among those influencing her guild.

In return, she occupies the topic of sustainability like hardly any other scientist in the country.

As the spokesperson for the “Scientists for Future” climate initiative, she speaks regularly to politicians and is also very present in the media.

Veronika Grimm's big topic is the question of how an industrial nation can transform itself into a more climate-friendly place while preserving its old strengths.

She is seen much less often on television than her colleagues.

But in the press, her big topic is all the more listened to.

What helps her: For one and a half years she has been a member of the Advisory Council as one of the economists.

Because both the effect in science and the influence in the public are important, the FAZ evaluation combines both in its ranking. It is crucial that on the one hand the research is heard and taken up in specialist circles, but also whether economists are valued by politicians as advisors and whether they play a role in the media. Your influence on social media will ultimately also be included in the rating

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The rise of the climate experts stands out - and is still only one aspect of the overall picture. What also becomes clear: The crisis is not a time for experiments. Both the media and politicians seek advice from those they know well and whom they trust.