Birgit Schwenk is the Director General for Climate Action at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action. Before assuming her present role, she was Deputy Director General for Strategic Aspects of Environmental Policy and Environmental Law at the German Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. Birgit joined the Federal Ministry for the Environment in 2001 and has since worked in the areas of sustainability, resource efficiency and international climate policy. Birgit Schwenk studied law and international relations in Freiburg, Edinburgh and Bologna and completed her legal clerkship in Berlin.