The work focuses on the usage of the base-metal cobalt in order to endeavor a replacement of noble-metal based industrial and academic systems. An earlier published system for the cobalt-based hydrogenation of carbon dioxide was improved by ligand-modification to a 2.5-fold turnover number. Also, the activity of this system in the hydrogenation of organic carbonates to the corresponding alcohols was demonstrated for the first time. Besides, supported cobalt nanoparticles have been proven to be active for selective olefin hydrogenations and investigated for heterogeneous hydroformylations.