Markus Nabernegg and Thomas Kopp, together with Stefan Nabernegg from the University of Graz, recently published the paper "Amplified challenges for the joint reduction of emissions and inequality, considering the missing-rich" in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management. 

The study combines tax microdata with machine-learning-based consumption predictions to better estimate emissions of the highest-income households. Applied to Ecuador, the results suggest that substantial income redistribution raises emissions by 26% when calculated with the new approach, compared to 6% when based on uncorrected survey data. 

Nabernegg, Markus, Stefan Nabernegg, and Thomas Kopp. 2026. Amplified challenges for the joint reduction of emissions and inequality, considering the missing-rich. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management. 139: 103353 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2026.103353

This ICODICE Manual offers practical guidance for stakeholders in higher education, including lecturers and university administrations, for planning and implementing international online collaborations in higher education. A limited number of print versions of the manual are available and can be ordered free of charge by contacting harriet.luedtke. A donation to Common Future e.V. is appreciated (IBAN DE84 4306 0967 6015 8424 03).

The digital version can be found under the following link: https://www.uni-giessen.de/en/faculties/f09/institutes/agri/gnt/imagesresearch/digital_internationally-connected-digital-classroom-education.pdf.

Background: The Internationally Connected Digital Classroom Education (ICDOCIDE) is an innovative approach in higher education that brings together students from different countries in shared digital classrooms to exchange knowledge, experiences, and perspectives. The ICODICE method was developed in a pilot project between Justus-Liebig-University Gießen (Germany), the University of Siegen (Germany), and Kerala Agricultural University (India) and funded by the German Foundation for Innovation in Higher Education (“Stiftung Innovation in der Hochschullehre”). It brought together students from India and Germany and focused on the effects of climate change, climate justice, and pathways of socio-ecological transformation — topics that are relevant to societies both in the Global South and the Global North. 

The manual can be cited as "Engeling, Claudius; Chawla, Vipul; Raghavan Sathyan, Archana; Kopp, Thomas, 2026: Internationally Connected Digital Classroom Education – A practical guide for higher education.”

The Professorship for Global Nutrition and Trade held a team meeting on May 19 in Gießen. Chair members shared updates on their ongoing research projects and provided feedback on each other's work.

Following the presentations, the team attended the weekly PhD Seminar and then went on a city tour covering historical landmarks such as the Church Tower, the Synagogue, and the Old and New Castle.

On May 05, 2026, Dr. Dela-Dem Doe Fiankor, Profesor for Food Economics and Policy at the University of Göttingen, presented his research at our seminar. 
In his talk, entitled "Global Wheat Price Shocks and Firm-Level Export Price Setting", Dr. Fiankor discussed how different wheat market shocks transmit to export prices of pasta and related products. The study combines a Bayesian structural VAR of the global wheat market (1970–2022) with Italian firm-level export data (2004–2022) and finds significant and asymmetric pass-through driven by demand and inventory shocks—stronger for positive shocks—while supply shocks have weaker effects.
Thank you, Dela, for your visit and sharing these interesting insights!

The first presentation in the new PhD Seminar, organised by Prof. Kopp, took place on Tuesday, April 21, at Zeughaus. Dr. Chukwuma Ume presented joint work with Ramona Teuber and Stéphanie Domptail, focussing on "Women’s Empowerment and Agroecology Participation: Panel Evidence on Food Security in Nigeria".

Future meetings will take place on Tuesdays, 12:30-13:30 at seminar room S4 in the Zeughaus building (Senckenbergstraße 3 in Gießen).

An overview of all sessions in this semester can be found here.

On 16 April, PhD student Aimen Abbas presented her current research at the PhD seminar of the Wegener Center  für Klima und Globalen Wandel at the University of Graz, following an invitation from Stefan Nabernegg. She presented joint work with Prof. Kopp in her talk entitled “Greener at Home, Dirtier Abroad? Environmental Policy Stringency and Emissions Embodied in EU Imports”. This paper explores how stricter EU environmental policies may be linked to emissions embodied in imports. 

The presentation was well received, and the discussion provided valuable comments and feedback for the further development of the study. Many thanks to Stefan Nabernegg for the invitation and to all participants for their helpful input.

Ayça Akçakoca, member of the Chair of Global Nutrition and Trade, and affiliated to the Center for Economic Education at the University of Siegen, participated in the National Model United Nations (NMUN) 2026 in New York and served as Chair of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) during Week B. In this role, Ms. Akçakoca led the committee through all sessions and ensured that the formal rules of procedure were applied consistently, providing a structured setting for debate. 

Further, the delegation, that Ms. Akçakoca was part of, received the Outstanding Delegation award, the highest distinction at NMUN, for the fourth consecutive year. Looking ahead, she aims to take on a Directorship role at NMUN in the coming year.

NMUN is the largest simulation of the United Nations worldwide and brings together participants from many countries to engage in diplomatic negotiation on global issues.

Our group was involved in the publication of two recent articles in the Global Food Journal, the magazine of the relief organisation World Hunger Relief (Welthungerhilfe). 

The first article was co-authored by Tom Kopp and Markus Nabernegg and draws the relation between religious beliefs and the consumption of meat products which is - in some instances - associated with detrimental climate and health concerns. In other contexts, however, meat can serve as important source of calories and micro nutrients and plays a crucial role in food security. 
https://www.welthungerhilfe.org/global-food-journal/rubrics/development-policy-agenda-2030/comsumption-of-meat-religion-and-the-sdgs.

The second article was led by Stéphanie Dompatail and co-authored by Tom Kopp and presents three case studies which describe how established gender norms have prevented women farmers from taking responsibility in food production. One of the cases displays how agroecological farming practices allowed an initiative of female farmers to emancipate themselves and improve food security. 
https://www.welthungerhilfe.org/global-food-journal/rubrics/development-policy-agenda-2030/gender-norms-in-the-food-systems-of-three-countries.

Both articles are available in English and German language.

Markus Nabernegg published a new working paper with the World Inequality Lab entitled Extreme Income Inequality in Ecuador – Dollarization, Commodity Price Boom, and Citizen Revolution. The paper constructs Ecuador’s first comprehensive Distributional National Accounts (DINA) series for 1990–2022 by combining household surveys with detailed tax microdata.

The results show that extreme income concentration remains highly persistent. In 2022, the top 1% captured around 25% of pretax income, while the bottom 50% received only around 12% of post-tax income. The paper also analyzes how dollarization, the commodity price boom, and the weakening of redistributive capacity in recent years shaped the evolution of inequality in Ecuador.

A short summary is available via WID https://wid.world/news-article/extreme-income-inequality-in-ecuador-dollarization-commodity-price-boom-and-citizen-revolution/, and the full paper https://prod.wid.world/www-site/uploads/2026/04/WorldInequalityLab_WP2026_08_Extreme-Income-Inequality-in-Ecuador_Dollarization-Commodity-Price-Boom-and-Citizen-Revolution_Final.pdf has been published as World Inequality Lab Working Paper 2026/08 .

Nabernegg, Markus. 2026. Extreme Income Inequality in Ecuador – Dollarization, Commodity Price Boom, and Citizen Revolution. World Inequality Lab Working Paper 2026/08.

Prof. Kopp and Aimen Abbas took part in a GreenPaths visioning workshop on desirable trajectories for green transitions on Cres Island, Croatia.

The workshop brought together consortium researchers and external experts from across Europe to discuss research and civil society perspectives on just and inclusive green transition pathways.

PhD student Dilsuz Nurmukhanmatova published an article in the Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, entitled Determinants of Market Power In European Industries. The paper addresses drivers of market power in nine industries in 21 European countries. 

Nurmukhanmatova, Dilsuz, and Thomas Kopp. 2026: "Determinants of Market Power In European Industries". Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, 26(5): 1-18. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10842-026-00467-y#Sec3.

Abstract:
While the scholarly work on market power at the macroeconomic level has gained momentum during the last decades, there is still little empirical evidence on the heterogeneity of market power across industries as well as on the relation between market power and structural industry characteristics. This study thus explores the influence of market concentration and industry-specific factors on market power, as measured by markups, across nine industries within the European Union. The econometric estimation employs the Group Fixed Effect estimator and is based on a rich panel data set of 21 European countries for the years 1999-2021. To identify both proximate and ultimate drivers of market power, potential determinants include market concentration rates and structural conditions of the industries under consideration. Results reveal a significant correlation between market concentration and firms’ markup, which displays, however, substantial heterogeneity across sectors. The same is true for the relation between markups and investments in technology, research and development, and marketing expenses. Results are robust to the choice of the estimation procedure.

We published the manual of the ICDOCIDE method for Internationally Connected Digital Classroom Education.

ICODICE is an innovative approach in higher education that brings together students from different countries in shared digital classrooms to exchange knowledge, experiences, and perspectives. A practical guide for stakeholders in higher education - including lecturers and university administrations - was recently published and can be found under the following link: https://www.uni-giessen.de/en/faculties/f09/institutes/agri/gnt/imagesresearch/digital_internationally-connected-digital-classroom-education.pdf. This manual offers practical guidance for planning and implementing similar international online collaborations in higher education.

The ICODICE method was developed in a pilot project between Justus-Liebig-University Gießen (Germany), the University of Siegen (Germany), and Kerala Agricultural University (India) and funded by the German foundation for innovation in higher education (“Stiftung Innovation in der Hochschullehre”). ICODICE brought together students from India and Germany and focused on the effects of climate change, climate justice, and pathways of socio-ecological transformation - topics that are relevant to societies both in the Global South and the Global North.

The manual can be cited as "Engeling, Claudius; Chawla, Vipul; Raghavan Sathyan, Archana; Kopp, Thomas, 2026: Internationally Connected Digital Classroom Education – A practical guide for higher education."

Our colleagues from Südwind Austria created an additional version of our educational game "The Good Life for all". The new game addresses the topic "Mobility and Resources". It can be downloaded for free here:

https://bildung2030.at/lernmedien/medientipp/ein-gutes-leben-fuer-alle-mobilitaet-rohstoffe/

Also, a limited number of copies of the original game "The Good Life for All" are still available. The games can be ordered free of charge by contacting Harriet.Luedtke. (The remaining copies are in German.)

Background: We developed the game in 2023 in collaboration with teachers from Germany and Tanzania. More information can be found here: www.the good life for all.info.

Please note: All remaining copies of the game are gone now.

Aimen Abbas presented her research at the University of Milan on how stricter environmental policies in Europe may influence global emissions through international trade, highlighting the challenges of reducing carbon footprints in an interconnected world.

As the concluding event of the ICODICE project (Internationally Connected Digital Classroom Education), the Chair of Prof. Thomas Kopp, in collaboration with Kerala Agricultural University, facilitated two online exchange sessions between Heisenberg Gymnasium Bruchsal (Germany) and Mitraniketan School (India).

Students from both universities co-designed and facilitated the online school exchanges. They gained hands-on experience with didactic planning and the practical organization of international online formats. During the sessions, participating school students shared their perspectives and discussed urban agriculture and watershed management in India and Germany.

The Professorship for Global Nutrition and Trade held a team meeting on December 09 and 10 in Gießen. Chair members shared updates on their respective ongoing research projects and provided helpful feedback to each other's work.

On December 04, Markus Nabernegg defended his PhD thesis as the first member of our group. The talk provided an overview of the five papers combined in his thesis, entitled "Essays on Inequality, Digitalization, and the Environment". Dr. Nabernegg received the top grade, summa cum laude. Congratulations! 

A warm thank you goes to the other members of the thesis committee: Prof. Nils Goldschmidt, serving as chair, and Prof. Svenja Flechtner, serving as second examiner.

The future of academic workspaces between climate targets and academic needs was the focus of discussions at the international ‘Sustainable Academia Forum’ on November 28, 2025.

The participants, Prof. Thomas Kopp, JLU Giessen, Germany, Prof. Alexandra den Heijer, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands, and Riet van de Velde, Ghent University, Belgium, met to discuss new requirements and develop visions for the infrastructure and spatial planning of tomorrow's universities and research institutes, considering the changing working models and climatic changes of recent years.

Prof. Kopp gave the guest lecture “Effects of the Digitalization in Plant Production on Greenhouse Gas Emissions” at the international conference
"Climate-Weed Nexus: Innovations for Sustainable Agriculture CWIS 2025" on November 27-28 at Kerala Agricultural University in India,
organised by our colleague Prof. Archana Raghavan Sathyan.

In his talk, he presented joint work with Robert Finger, Robert Huber (both ETH Zürich), Markus Nabernegg (Uni Gießen), and Richard J. Sexton (University of California, Davis)
on the implications of digital yield monitoring on nitrous oxide emissions in US-agriculture. 

This year’s climate camp, organized by the Scientists for Future (S4F) Gießen section took place at Castle Rauischholzhausen from Oct 17 – 19, 2025.

Prof. Dr. Thomas Kopp reported on Sustainable Economy
referring upon questions like:

Is economic growth possible without an environmental price?

Is economic growth possible while simultaneously reducing carbon emissions?

Or is this decoupling an illusion? Might be the so called “post-growth economy” a possibility to reduce emissions sufficient?

Further information can be found here https://www.s4f-camp-giessen.com/ and here https://www.s4f-camp-giessen.com/programmneu