Norbert Gorißen spent over twenty years shaping German international climate policy and diplomacy. He retired in February 2025 as Deputy Special Envoy for International Climate Action, leading the German COP negotiation team and guiding the nation’s first Foreign Climate Strategy. Previously, he developed the International Climate Initiative at the Federal Ministry for the Environment, a program for supporting climate action in developing countries, and co-founded CPI’s Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance. He served as EU lead negotiator for finance on the Paris Agreement. Earlier roles included coordinating Germany’s 2007 EU Presidency environment agenda and organizing the “renewables2004” conference. He started his career at the Germany Federal Environmental Agency in 1986.

He now serves as Senior Fellow at the Brussels-based think tank Strategic Perspectives and advises the Nairobi-based office of UNOPS on renewable energy and green industrialization in Africa.