Forschungsinstitut für
Nachhaltigkeit | am GFZ

Default Avatar

Prof. Rafael Fernandez

Senior Fellow

E-Mail

rafael [dot] fernandez [at] rifs-potsdam [dot] de

Rafael Fernandez is economist and political scientist. He is currently undertaking a comparative and longitudinal case study methodology to asses the viability and socio-environmental impacts of hydrogen projects that are being launched across various EU countries.

He is a researcher at the Complutense Institute of International Studies (ICEI) and Professor in the Department of Applied and Structural Economics (UCM) where he teaches a course on "Global Political Economy" and two Master elective courses on "Global Political Economy of Energy" and "Policital Economy of Russia".

Rafael is a member of the research group on "Labour and Structural Transformations in Spain and the EU (LAST)", as well as a member of the CLACSO Team on Energy and Sustainable Development, and the Self-Steering Committee on Sustainability of the UnaEuropa Alliance. He has recently been Vice-Dean of Research and PhD studies at the School of Economics and Business at UCM, and currently is an independent member of the board of directors of the "Instituto de Crédito Oficial" (ICO).

  • 2003-2025: Professor of Political Ecnoomy at UCM.

  • 2025: Member of two ongoing research projects:

  • "Interdisciplinary and community-based research on just energy transitions: The role of green hydrogen (JUSTRANS GH2)", funded by the UnaEuropa Alliance.
  • "Socio-labor transitions in the digital era: occupational change, labor segmentation and wage inequality", Proyectos de Generación de Conocimiento, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Spain, PID2022-136664OA-I00.

  • 2025: Member of CLACSO Team on "Energy and Sustainable Development", and member of UCM-Research Group LAST: "Labor And Structural Transformations in Spain and the EU".

  • 2023-25: Member of the UnaEuropa Self-Steering Committee in Sustainability at UCM, and member of the teacher staff of the Bachelor in Sustainability (BASUS), joint European Degree of the UnaEuropa Alliance.

  • 2022-24: Chair of the Examination Board, and member of the teacher staff of the Bachelor in European Studies (BAES), joint European Degrees of the UnaEuropa Alliance.

  • 2022-25: Independent member of the board of directors of the Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO).

  • 2019-2023: Vice-Dean of Research and PhD Studies of the Faculty of Economics at UCM.

  • 2019-2024: Member of the "Catching up along the global value chain (GVC2UP4IR)". European Commission. Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions. Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE). Call: H2020-MSCA-RISE-2017.

  • 2018-2023: Member of two European teaching innovation projects (completed):

  • Developing International Experience for Students through Virtual Mobility (KA203-081D152F), 2018-2021.
  • Developing an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master's Degree on Sustainable Natural Resource Management and Long-run Economic Development (KA203-E6D29BCD), 2022-23.

  • 1999: Ph.D in Economics (UCM).

  • 1994: BA in Economics (UCM); 2001: BA in Political Science (UNED),

  • Industrial policies, sustainable development and energy transitions, with special attention to green hydrogen in Europe and developing economies.

  • International energy relations and the historical formation of energy markets, with special attention to natural gas relations between the EU and its external suppliers.

  • Transformations in energy relations and energy markets in the face of climate change, with special attention to the strategies of oil & gas companies.

  • Industrial policies, structural change and productivity in European economies.

Publikationen vor der Tätigkeit am RIFS

  • "Navigating Sustainable Industrial Development: Industrial Policies for Clean Hydrogen", in Navigating Sustainability: Strategies and Solutions for Businesses in Emerging and Developing Nations, Springer, 2025.
  • "What's new in green hydrogen for Latin America?", in Latin America and the new geopolitics of energy, Springer, 2024 (accepted).
  • "Can national development banks translate the EU´s new goals? Lessons from the Spanish case", Journal of Economic Policy Reform, September 2024.
  • "Variantes de (des)industrialización y terciarización en las economías en desarrollo", Información Comercial Española, (ICE), 934, 2024.
  • 'Diferencias estratégicas entre las majors del petróleo ante la transición energética', Arbor, Ciencia, Pensamiento y Cultura, CSIC, 2023.
  • "Does tertiarisation slow down productivity growth? A Kaldorian-Baumolian analysis across 10 developed economies', Metroeconomica, 74/2, 2023.
  • "The drivers of deinsdutrialization in advanced economies: A Hierarchical Structural Decomposition Analysis", Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, vol.58, september 2021.
  • "Demand and productivity growth: the Spanish paradox', Journal of Economic Studies, October 2020.
  • "Revisiting Francoist Developmentalism: The influence of wages in the Spanish growth model", Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, vol.52, March 2020.
  • "A political economy approach to the EU Gas Model: Continuities and Changes", Journal Common Market Studies, 52:3, 495-511, 2014.
  • "The importance of the transnational corporations in the supply of oil to Europe", Energy Policy, 47, 270-281, 2012.
  • "Kazakhstan: oil endowment and oil empowerment", Communist and Post-communist Studies, vol. 45, nº 1-2, 2012.
  • "The Future of Russian gas exports to East Asia: feasibility and market implications", Futures, 43, Special Issue, 2011.
  • "Nabucco and the Russian gas strategy vis a vis Europe", Post-Communist Economies, March, 2011.
  • "Russian gas exports have potential to grow through 2020", Energy Policy, vol. 37, issue 10,October, 2009.
  • "Some scenarios for Russian oil exports up to 2020", Europe-Asia Studies, vol.61, nº 8, october, 2009.

  • "Globalization and international energy relations", Master Analyst of Intelligence, National Intelligence Center-Centro Nacional de Inteligencia (CNI), 2024 and 2023.
  • "The return of the industrial policy", French Embassy in Spain, 2023.
  • "Russia: economy and politics", Master Analyst of Intelligence, National Intelligence Center-Centro Nacional de Inteligencia (CNI), 2022 and 2023.
  • "Russia and Ukraine: the roots of a conflict", Faculty of Economics and Business, UCM, 2022.
  • "Reform of the natural gas market in the EU: continuity and change", Market reforms and energy integration in the European Union, Summer School, Ramón Areces, 2015.
  • "Natural gas and energy security: European strategy and international context", Energy Security in Europe, I Eurodefense, Military Academy of Segovia, 2015.
  • "Russia. An energy superpower", Seguridad global y potencias emergentes en un mundo multipolar, XIX Curso Internacional de Defensa, Universidad de Zaragoza, 2012.
  • "Oil and gas: strengthening two strategic drivers for long term growth in Russia", Long term growth in Russia and China, Central Bank of Finland (Helsinki), 2009.