Ulrike Lehr

Dr. Ulrike Lehr studied physics at the University of Essen and economics at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute USA (M.Sc. 1992). She received her PhD for a thesis on environmental valuation in 2005 from the University of Hohenheim. She worked as a researcher at the German Aerospace Center (2005-2008) and at the RWI e.V., Essen; Department of energy policy studies and research (1993-1999). She worked with GWS as a Senior Expert since 2008 and became partner in 2011. As of January 2021, Dr. Lehr became the Head of the Policy (Socioeconomics) Unit at IRENA.

Dr. Lehr analyzed the economic effects of the transition to the green economy for Germany, Russia and the Middle East, as well as climate change adaptation policies for the EU member states and particular EU regions. She applied economic simulation models developed by GWS and analyzed economic effects detailed by economic sector. She focuses on developing methods to identify impacts of cross-cutting sectors and technologies, such as renewable energy, e-mobility, tourism or green production. As Head of the Policy (Socioeconomics) division in IRENA, she oversees IRENA’s socioeconomic modeling work for the Global Renewable Energy Transitions Outlook (WETO 2021), as well as the socioeconomic footprint analyses, the socioeconomic analyses in IRENA’s Regional Market series and IRENA’s work on gender, and in particular on jobs.