When political scientist Melanie Müller began her research on the 2011 climate conference in South Africa, the consensus among experts was: Africa has other problems than the climate. Yet the African environmental movement is often underestimated, she finds. „In South Africa, for example, the right to a clean environment is enshrined in the constitution.“ With her doctorate, which she completed in 2016 at Freie Universität in Berlin, Melanie Müller became an expert on Africa. Today, she works in the Africa and Middle East Research Group at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP).