Sophie von Loeben

Sophie joined PIK in 2021 as a project coordinator and research analyst. In 2023 she started her PhD with a focus on climate change adaptation of coffee value chains in Eastern Africa.

Before joining PIK, Sophie worked at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) specializing in disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation in agriculture. At FAO she supported Ministries of Agriculture in various countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America and the Caribbean in conducting vulnerability and risk assessments and with the identification of risk reduction measures at policy and farm-level. At global level, she supported FAO contributions to international disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation processes, incl. UNDRR, UNCCD, UNFCCC and UN Secretary General.

Sophie holds a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in International Affairs from Vesalius College Brussels (now Brussels School of Governance) and a Master of Science (MSc) in Environment and Development from the London School of Economics and Social Science. She is an alumna of the Carlo Schmid Programme.

Adopting a value chain perspective, her doctoral research explores the impacts of climate change on the coffee value chain in East Africa and aims to better understand the possibility to adapt to these impacts through the commercial use of indigenous coffee species.  Using a combination of econometric analyses and crop modelling, she assesses how weather shocks impact the different steps of the coffee value chain in Uganda (production, storage, processing and sales) and the climate change adaptation potential of introducing underutilized coffee species to the world market.

Her specific areas of research include

• Agricultural value chains
• Climate change adaptation
• Loss and Damage
• Coffee
• East Africa

Peer-reviewed publications:
Murken, L.*, Tomalka, J.*, Abigaba, D., Amoah, A.-B., Amougou, J.A., Anaba, M., Arumugam, P., Awori, E., Baek, H.-R.L., Below, T., Cartsburg, M., Chemura, A., Cronauer, C., Didovets, I., Gizaw, A.W., Gleixner, S., Gloy, N., Grams, E., Habtemariam, L., Hampf, A., Hauf, Y., Heckmann, T., Ibrahim, B., Jansen, L., Jarawura, F., Kagonbé, T., Kaufmann, J., Kephe, P., Klockemann, L., Lange, S., Laudien, R., Liersch, S., Lipka, N., Lüttringhaus, S., Neer, S., Neya, O., Noleppa, S., Ostberg, S., Pollig, J., Romanovska, P., Röhrig, F., Schauberger, B., Shukla, R., Staubach, L., Tchindjang, M., Undorf, S., Vetter, R., von Loeben, S., von Stechow, C., von Witzke, K., Weituschat, C.S., Wortmann, M., Yalew, A.W., Zouh, I., Gornott, C. (2024). The need for evidence-based climate risk and adaptation assessments: Lessons learned from the AGRICA project. Environmental Research Letters, https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad50eb; * Shared first authorship

von Loeben, S., Murken, L., Lombardi, N. & Baas, S. (2021): Evaluating Costs and Benefits of Farm-Level Disaster and Climate Risk Management Good Practices. - In: Leal Filho, W., Luetz, J., Ayal, D. (Eds.), Handbook of Climate Change Management, Cham : Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22759-3_299-1

Policy Reports and Working Papers :
von Loeben, S. C., Gornott, C., Abigaba, D., Adriko, J., Awori, E., Cartsburg, M., Chemura, A., Cronauer, C. C., Lipka, N., Murken, L., Muzafarova, A., Noleppa, S., Romanovska, P., Tomalka, J., Weituschat, C. S., Zvolsky, A. (2023): Climate risk analysis for adaptation planning in Uganda's agricultural sector: An assessment of maize and coffee value chains, Potsdam : A report prepared by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) in cooperation with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), 73 p.
https://doi.org/10.48485/pik.2023.021 

von Loeben, S., Blocher, J., Destrijcker, L., Fischer, B., Gleixner, S., Hegre, H., Jansen, L., Jones, B., Kjærum, A., Lindqvist-McGowan, A., Manger, N., Mayer, T., Tomalka, J., Vesco, P., Wesch, S., & Zvolsky, A., Birner, J.*, Vinke, K.*, Gornott, C.* (2022). Sahel Predictive Analytics Report. *shared last autorship. https://www.unhcr.org/media/moving-reaction-action-anticipating-vulnerability-hotspots-sahel-0 https://www.unhcr.org/media/moving-reaction-action-anticipating-vulnerability-hotspots-sahel-0

Röhrig, F., Gloy, N., von Loeben, S., Arumugam, P., Aschenbrenner, P. Baek, H., Ibrahim Fodi, B., Chemura, A., Habtema-riam, L., Kaufmann, J., Koch, H., Liersch, S., Lüttringhaus, S., Murken, L., Noleppa, S., Ostberg, S., Cartsburg, M., Schau-berger, B., Shukla, R., Tomalka, J., Wesch, S., Wortmann, M. & Gornott, C., (2022). Climate Risk Analysis for Identifying and Weighing Adaptation Strategies for the Agricultural Sector in Niger. A report prepared by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) in cooperation with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), 154 pp. DOI: 10.48485/pik.2022.002.

Röhrig, F., Gloy, N., von Loeben, S., Arumugam, P., Aschenbrenner, P. Baek, H., Bado, I., Chemura, A., Habtemariam, L., Kaufmann, J., Koch, H., Laudien, R., Liersch, S., Lüttringhaus, S., Murken, L., Neya, O., Noleppa, S., Ostberg, S., Safietou, S., Schauberger, B., Shukla, R., Tomalka, J., Wesch, S., Wortmann, M. & Gornott, C., (2021). Analyse des risques climatiques pour l’identification et la pondération des stratégies d’adaptation dans le secteur agricole du Burkina Faso. Un rapport élaboré par le Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (Institut de recherche de Potsdam sur les effets du change-ment climatique PIK) avec la Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH au nom du ministère fédéral allemand de la Coopération économique et du Développement (BMZ), 151 pp. DOI: 10.48485/pik.2022.001.

Tomalka, J., Birner, J., Dieye, A. M., Gleixner, S., Harper, A., Hauf, Y., Hippe, F., Jansen, L., Lange, S., Laudien, R., Rheinbay, J., Vinke, K., von Loeben, S., Wesch, S., Zvolsky, A., & Gornott, C. (2021). Climate Risk Profile: Sahel. https://agrica.de/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/PIK_Climate-Risk-Profile-Sahel_09.pdf

Crumpler, K., Dasgupta, S., Federici, S., Meybeck, M., Bloise, M., Slivinska,V., Salvatore, M., Damen, B., Von Loeben, S., Wolf, J. and Bernoux, M. 2020. Regional analysis of the nationally determined contributions in Asia – Gaps and opportunities in the agriculture and land use sectors. Environment and Natural Resources Management Working Paper No. 78. Rome, FAO. https://doi.org/10.4060/ca7264en

Crumpler, K., Dasgupta, S., Federici, S., Meybeck, A., Bloise, M., Slivinska, V., Von Loeben, S., Damen, B., Salvatore, M., Wolf, J. and Bernoux, M. 2020. Regional analysis of the nationally determined contributions in the Pacific – Gaps and opportunities in the agriculture and land use sectors. Environment and Natural Resources Management Working Papers No. 82. Rome, FAO. https://doi.org/10.4060/ca8681en

FAO, 2019. Disaster risk reduction at farm level: Multiple benefits, no regrets. Rome.160 pp. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO, (Lombardi, N., Murken, L., von Loeben, S. & Baas, S.)

• AfriValue - Analyzing climate risks and identifying and measuring adaptation strategies along agricultural value chains
  

• AGRICA - Climate risk analyses for adaptation planning in sub-Saharan Africa

• Sahel Predictive Analytics

Selection of presentations and panel discussions:

• "Save my coffee!", Panel Discussion at GREENTECH FESTIVAL 2023
• "Brühend heiß - wie der Klimawandel dem Kaffee zu schaffen macht", Presentation at Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften 2022
• "Projected impacts of climate change on food security in the Sahel and its effects on displacement", presentation at the EU side event “Climate impacts as drivers of displacement: science, human rights and policy response” at COP26, 2021

Selection of  media outreach

• “plan-b” documentary Kaffee mit Zukunft , ZDF and ARTE RE, 2024
• Several news articles on coffee and climate change (among them ZDF heute, Lebensmittel Zeitung, DPA, FAZ, SZ, Zeit, Tagesspiegel, GEO), 2023 and 2024
• Guest in the Podcast: "Vom Feld ins Regal", Folge 78 Kaffee, Klima und Katastrophen - Wie der Klimawandel unseren geliebten Wachmacher gefährdet, 2023