I am Niklas Hänze, a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Politics and Public Administration and the Cluster of Excellence The Politics of Inequality at the University of Konstanz. My research examines how political factors and international institutions shape inequalities in the face of environmental change, with a particular focus on international climate finance, the politics of aid allocation, and the social dimensions of climate vulnerability.
A central focus of my research is on international institutions and the politics of climate finance. Does multilateral adaptation aid reaches the populations most in need? What political factors shape its sub-national distribution? How does the allocation of climate mitigation aid differ from adaptation aid? Beyond aid allocation, I investigate how overlapping forms of inequality, shaped by armed conflict, gender, and socioeconomic factors, compound one another to determine vulnerability and resilience. For instance, my research shows that conflict dynamics significantly amplify disaster impacts, and that gender inequalities and access to land rights shape households’ adaptive capacities in the face of extreme weather. My research combines insights from political science, international relations, and environmental research to understand how political structures and international institutions interact with these overlapping inequalities across countries and regions.
My work has been published or is forthcoming in Political Geography, the Journal of Peace Research, and Africa Spectrum. Methodologically, I employ quantitative and spatial approaches of causal inference to investigate these questions. My research contributes to the broader understanding of how international institutions and political structures shape the distribution of risks and resources across populations. Prior to my doctoral studies, I earned a BA from Osnabrück University and an MA from the University of Konstanz.
I’m also the recipient of the Christiane-Rajewsky-Award (2023) by the German Association for Peace and Conflict Studies (Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Friedens- und Konfliktforschung).