An international group of scholars gathered in Potsdam, Germany, for a three-day workshop to review the first draft of Margarita Balmaceda, Ph.D.’s upcoming book, “The Last Frontier of Decarbonization: Hidden Industrial Carbon between Geopolitics and Climate Change.” The event was hosted by the Research Institute for Sustainability at the German GeoSciences Center.
Seven experts from Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States attended the workshop. Their backgrounds ranged across academic publishing, energy geopolitics, anthropology, political science, and studies focused on Ukraine and China. Participants included Cara Daggett from Virginia Tech; Per Högselius from the Royal Swedish Institute of Technology; Douglas Rogers from Yale University; Emily Channell-Justice, director of the Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program at Harvard University’s Ukrainian Research Institute; Philip Andrews-Speed from the University of Oxford; Peter Rutland from Wesleyan University; and Heiko Pleines from the University of Bremen. Balmaceda also leads the Academic Advisory Board at Bremen.
The institute covered travel and participation costs for attendees. This support highlights how Balmaceda’s project aligns with current research priorities involving climate policy, geopolitics, and industrial change.
Balmaceda explained that bringing together participants with varied expertise was key to shaping her book for a broad audience: policymakers, business leaders, Eastern Europe and Ukraine scholars, climate researchers, and those examining China’s economic role.
“This book is important because it shows that the ‘hidden’ use of fossil fuels as feedstock or in industrial chemical reactions, as in steel, plastics and nitrogen fertilizer production, for example, not only has serious implications for the climate, but is also crucial for unlocking broader decarbonization processes,” Balmaceda said. “The book is also important because it bridges the gap between highly technical research and concrete policy concerns, providing readers with the necessary technical understanding to participate actively in debates.”
Feedback during the workshop was positive. Discussions centered on how Balmaceda’s work could influence both academic thought and policy approaches regarding industrial carbon use. Högselius commented on its potential impact beyond academia: “People from industry will take this book very seriously.”
Channell-Justice noted how the manuscript challenges existing views on global energy politics: “The book makes a major contribution to the way we have understood—and misunderstood—energy politics, specifically around the global shift away from fossil fuels,” she said. “This book helps us understand how carbon is used in far more ways than just for direct energy consumption, and it also shows how this usage is tied up in major geopolitical interests.”
The Research Institute for Sustainability and German GeoSciences Center are part of Germany’s Helmholtz Association—the country’s largest research organization—which has an annual budget exceeding $6.5 billion. The association focuses on research addressing critical issues facing science and society.
Balmaceda described this workshop as a significant step forward but acknowledged further work ahead before publication. She said that feedback received reinforced her central argument about industrial carbon use being vital to any effective decarbonization strategy.
Margarita Balmaceda is a founding faculty member at Seton Hall University’s School of Diplomacy and International Relations with expertise in energy’s political economy.
