Profile

Biography

Melf joined the Department in 2010. He moved to York from Humboldt University Berlin, Germany, where he taught environmental and resource economics for three years.

In his current research he investigates the emergence of Germany's agricultural biogas (anaerobic digestion) sector. Melf is an ecological economist with particular interest in institutional economics approaches towards technological change, natural resource use and environmental conflicts. The policy areas, where he locates his research, are renewable energies, water, agriculture and rural economies.

When working as a policy consultant for Ecologic, Berlin, from 2006 to 2008, he focused on economic implications of the European Water Framework Directive. Over the last years Melf's interest in science-policy-education interfaces increased. Together with colleagues from other universities, he explored values and practices of interdisciplinary sustainability research and roles of attitudes towards technology in ecological economics teaching.

Career

Teaching Fellow in Environmental Economics	Environment Department, University of York
MSc	University of Edinburgh
BSc	Reading

Research

Overview

In my PhD dissertation I am examining the complex processes of change, adaptation and path-dependencies in ecological, technological and economic realms at the regional level of Germany’s emerging biogas (anaerobic digestion) sector. The topic relates to more general questions of renewable energy deployment and socio-ecological implications of transitions in energy provisioning. To address such issues theoretically, I am using evolutionary and institutional economics, entrepreneurship and environmental governance approaches. The empirical approaches rest on qualitative case study methods. But I have also used quantitative methods and modelling techniques to examine agri-environmental schemes and energy balances of farming systems. An additional area, I am interested in, are practices and values of sustainability researchers. In this topical area, I empirically investigated interdisciplinarity and science-society interfaces, but also the role of attitudes towards technology in teaching and research. My more consultancy oriented research focused on economic evaluation of water policies, such as the EU Water Framework Directive.

Publications

Full publications list

Peer reviewed

Grundmann, Philipp, Melf-Hinrich Ehlers, and Götz Uckert. 2012. “Responses of Agricultural Bioenergy Sectors in Brandenburg (Germany) to Climate, Economic and Legal Changes: An Application of Holling's Adaptive Cycle.” Energy Policy. (in press)

Lehmann, Paul, Felix Creutzig, Melf-Hinrich Ehlers, Nele Friedrichsen, Clemens Heuson, Lion Hirth, and Robert Pietzcker. 2012. “Carbon Lock-Out: Advancing Renewable Energy Policy in Europe.” Energies 5(2): 323-54. (link: http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/5/2/323/)

Castán Broto, Vanesa, Maya Gislason, and Melf-Hinrich Ehlers. 2009. “Practising Interdisciplinarity in the Interplay Between Disciplines: Experiences of Established Researchers”. Environmental Science & Policy 12:922-33.

Ehlers, Melf-Hinrich, Vanesa Castán Broto, and Maya K. Gislason. 2009. “Interdisciplinary Research Approaches to Sustainability- the Young Scientist Perspective.” In Sustainability At Universities - Opportunities, Challenges and Trends, ed. Walter Leal Filho. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.

Ehlers, Melf-Hinrich. 2008. “Farmers' Reasons for Engaging in Bioenergy Utilisation and Their Institutional Context: A Case Study From Germany.” In Agri-Food Business: Global Challenges – Innovative Solutions. Studies on the Agricultural and Food Sector in Central and Eastern Europe, Vol. 46, ed. Thomas Glauben, Jon H. Hanf, Michael Kopsidis, Agata Pienadz, and Klaus Reinsberg. Halle(Saale): IAMO.

Book chapters

Ehlers, Melf-Hinrich. 2008. „Dezentrale erneuerbare Energiewirtschaft – Möglichkeiten einer neuen Machtbalance”. In Energie, Macht, Vernunft – Der umfassendere Blick auf die Energiewende, ed. Felix Creutzig and Jan Christoph Goldschmidt, J.C. Aachen: Shaker Media.

Castán Broto, Vanesa, Maya Gislason, and Melf-Hinrich Ehlers. 2007. “Knowledge and practice in interdisciplinary research”. In Institutional Analysis of Sustainability Problems, ed. Tanja Kluvánková-Oravská, Veronika Chobotová, Jirinja Jílková, J., and Peter Sauer. Nakladatelství a Vydavatelství Litomyslského Semináre, Prague, Czech Republic. pp. 225-270.

Castán Broto, Vanesa, Maya Gislason, and Melf-Hinrich Ehlers. 2007. “Values and practice of early-stage sustainability researchers”. In Institutional Analysis of Sustainability Problems, ed. Tanja Kluvánková-Oravská, Veronika Chobotová, Jirinja Jílková, J., and Peter Sauer. Nakladatelství a Vydavatelství Litomyslského Semináre, Prague, Czech Republic. pp. 271-281.

Teaching

Undergraduate

• Economics for the Environment
• Economics of Ecological Resources
• Introductory Economics

Postgraduate

• Resource Economics and Management
• Environmental Economics