Vera Rodenhoff is Head of the Division for International Cooperation on Climate and Energy in the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK). She leads a team responsible for strategic issues of international cooperation and implementing initiatives in the areas of international climate protection and the global energy transition. Examples for aforementioned initiatives include the Powering Past Coal Alliance, the Breakthrough Agenda and the Leadership for Urban Climate Investment. The overall goal of Vera’s team is to align international energy cooperation with the Paris Climate Agreement and limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C through cooperation and ambitious action.

Prior to this role, Vera held different positions in the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (Ministry of Environment), until spring of 2022 as Head of Division for International Cooperation on Environment, Energy and Cities, alongside cooperation with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and affiliated countries. Vera’s previous positions in the Ministry of Environment were Head of Division of International Affairs and Protocol in the Environment Minister’s staff for the Environment Ministers Norbert Röttgen, Peter Altmaier and Barbara Hendricks, and Head of Cabinet and Personal Secretary to the Federal Minister of Environment Sigmar Gabriel as well as policy advisor on international legal affairs in the Ministry of Environment.

Before entering the Ministry of Environment in 2005, Vera worked as a lawyer advising the German government on European and international environmental law and policy issues as an associate for the think tank Ecologic Institute, and as researcher at the Chair of Prof. Dr. Ingolf Pernice for Public Law, International Public Law and European Law at the Humboldt University Berlin. Prior to that, she worked for an international law firm and as a consultant for UNESCO in Paris.

Vera holds a doctorate in international and European environmental law from the Humboldt University Berlin, focusing on the role of the EU and its member states in international environmental regimes as well as a Master of Laws (LLM) from the London School of Economics and Political Science in addition to Germany's first and second state exams in law.