After completing her studies in Environmental Systems Science (specialization: Political Economics) with a thesis on "Measures to reduce motorized private transport and the evaluation thereof" at the University of Graz, Angela Friedrich was immediately made an intructor. Later she worked for the Graz Energy Agency among others in the area of energy control in Europe, Marketing and Contracting. Since 2002, she has worked intermittently in the Department of Climate and Emissions Protection at the Austrian Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management. Counted among the core areas of her work are the Joint Implementation and Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto-Protocol as well as the implementation of EU emissions trading in Austria.