Gerald Haug appointed to the German Council for Sustainable Development
Gerald Haug, Professor of Climate Geochemistry at the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and former President of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, has been appointed to the German Federal Government’s Council for Sustainable Development.
Gerald Haug’s research focuses on reconstructing past climate evolution using sediment cores from oceans and lakes, spanning timescales from thousands to millions of years. The chemical composition of individual sediment layers provides insights into past environmental and climatic conditions, yielding key knowledge about the dynamics of the climate system and potential tipping points.
Haug has been Professor of Climate Geochemistry at ETH Zurich since 2007 and, since 2015, Director of the Climate Geochemistry Department at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz. He has been a member of the Leopoldina since 2012 and served as its President from 2020 to 2025. During his presidency, he strengthened the Academy’s role as a science-based advisor to politics and society and initiated, among other initiatives, the publication format Leopoldina Focus. He also contributed to several policy advisory statements, including on climate targets and the future of the oceans.
Haug was appointed to the Council for Sustainable Development by Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz. The Council advises the Federal Government on the strategic and substantive development of Germany’s Sustainable Development Strategy and promotes sustainability in public discourse. The term of office is three years.