Ottmar Edenhofer


Ottmar Georg Edenhofer is a German economist who is regarded as one of the world's leading experts on climate change policy, environmental and energy policy, and energy economics. His work has been heavily cited. Edenhofer currently holds the professorship of the Economics of Climate Change at Technische Universität Berlin. Together with Earth scientist Johan Rockström, economist Ottmar Edenhofer is scientific director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, representing the interdisciplinary and solutions-oriented approach of the institute. Furthermore, he was director of the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change which is since 2025 part of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research as fifth research department "Climate Economics and Policy". From 2008 to 2015 he served as one of the co-chairs of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group III "Mitigation of Climate Change".
Edenhofer is chair of the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change. This expert advisory board, convened in 2021 by the European Climate Law, advises the European Union independently and on the basis of scientific knowledge. The work of the ESABCC contributed to the European Commission's recommendation of a climate target for 2040. He is a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and of the German Academy of Science and Engineering. In 2020 Professor Edenhofer was honoured with the most prestigious environmental prize in Germany the Environment Prize (German Environment Foundation) for his groundbreaking work in the field of carbon pricing. Before, he was awarded the Romano-Guardini-Prize by the Katholische Akademie in Bayern.
WWW pik-potsdam.de/members/ed...

Education

Edenhofer was born in Gangkofen, Lower Bavaria, Germany. He completed his diploma in economics with honors at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. He belonged the Jesuit Order from 1987 to 1994 and following his novitiate earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy at the Munich School of Philosophy. During this time he also founded an enterprise in the public health sector and led a humanitarian aid organization in Croatia and Bosnia from 1991 to 1993. After leaving the Order, Edenhofer worked as a research assistant from 1994 to 2000 and completed his PhD in economics summa cum laude at Technische Universität Darmstadt in 1999 under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Carlo C. Jäger.

Career

In 2018, Edenhofer was appointed director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research with Earth scientist Johan Rockström. Previously, Edenhofer was deputy director and chief economist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, where he headed Research Area III.
Since June 2020 Edenhofer is project lead of the major Copernicus research activity Ariadne on the German energy transition. The project is investigating options how climate targets can be met with socially accepted policy instruments
From 2008 to 2015 he served as a co-chair of Working Group III "Mitigation of Climate Change" of the. Under his leadership as co-chair, the IPCC published the Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation, and the Fifth Assessment Report on Climate Change in 2014. In 2012 he became director of the newly founded Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change.
From 2004 to 2008 Edenhofer was a lead author of the Fourth Assessment Report on Climate Change published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007. The IPCC was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in the same year.
Since 2008, Edenhofer holds the professorship for the at Technische Universität Berlin.

Other activities and advisory roles

Edenhofer has advised German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on carbon pricing. Edenhofer was asked to submit an expertise on carbon pricing options to the German Council of Economic Experts. In 2021, Edenhofer was appointed to the by Pope Francis.
Edenhofer is a member of the OECD Advisory Council “Growth, Investment and the Low-Carbon Transition”. At the invitation of Ségolène Royal and Feike Sijbesma, co-chairs of the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition High Level Assembly, he became a member of the High-Level Commission on Carbon Prices – co-chaired by Joseph Stiglitz and Nicholas Stern – in 2019/20. In June 2021, he was appointed to the World Bank–International Monetary Fund High-Level Advisory Group on Sustainable and Inclusive Recovery and Growth, co-chaired by Mari Pangestu, Ceyla Pazarbasioglu, and Nicholas Stern.
In addition, Edenhofer holds the following unpaid or paid honorary positions:
Besides his teaching and research activities, Edenhofer actively contributes to public debates about political climate protection measures in Germany and the European Union.

Research interests

Edenhofer's research explores the impact of induced technological change on mitigation costs and mitigation strategies, the value capture and distribution of land rents, and the design of instruments for climate and energy policy. He specializes in the economics of atmospheric stabilization, social cost-benefit analysis, land value tax, sustainability theory, economic growth theory, environmental economics, welfare theory, and general intertemporal equilibrium theory.

Philosophy and position on climate change

Edenhofer says that his interest in philosophy and economics was influenced by his readings of the works of Henry George, Karl Marx, Max Weber, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and John Dewey. Regarding climate change he says: "Denying out and out that climate change is a problem for humanity, as some cynics do, is an unethical, unacceptable position."
Edenhofer is a proponent of carbon pricing. He points out that both cap-and-trade and a direct carbon tax can be implemented to reduce greenhouse emissions and encourage innovation to preserve the climate. He feels strongly that moving the global economy to a low-carbon threshold requires huge increases in the use of renewable energy across all economic sectors.
Edenhofer is a strongly anti-nuclear and has advised Angela Merkel on the German nuclear phase-out.
Edenhofer offered this in a speech he made November 2010"....one has to free oneself(from the illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy. Instead, climate change policy is about how we redistribute de facto the world's wealth..."

Publications