Prof. Dr. Ottmar Edenhofer

Director

Prof. Dr. Ottmar Edenhofer

Prof. Dr. Ottmar Edenhofer is Director of the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC), founded jointly by Stiftung Mercator and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), where he also serves as Director and as Chief Economist. He is also Professor of the Economics of Climate Change at the Technische Universität Berlin. Among his many obligations he is member of the German National Academy of Science and Engineering acatech as well as member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, Section Economics and Empirical Social Sciences.

From 2008 to 2015, Edenhofer served as Co-Chair of Working Group III of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. He contributed heavily to the shaping of the Fifth Assessment Report on Climate Change Mitigation which provided the scientific basis for the Paris Agreement. Since April 2022, Edenhofer has been co-chair of the EU’s newly established European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change (ESABCC). The board will provide independent scientific advice and produce reports that record the extent to which EU policy is in line with the 2021 European Climate Change Act and the EU's commitments under the Paris Agreement.

Edenhofer authored a considerable number of articles published by Science, PNAS, Nature, Nature Climate Change and in various high-ranking environment, energy and resource economic publications, and various books. His work has been heavily cited, which is illustrated by an h-index of 52 in Scopus, 49 in Web of Science and 77 in Google Scholar. In 2018, 2020, 2021 and 2022, Ottmar Edenhofer belonged to the 1% of the most cited scientists worldwide in the category "interdisciplinary science" according to the Web of Science citation index.

His research work is concentrating on strategies to mitigate climate change, questions of growth- and development theory, public finance, questions of distributional effects of climate policy instruments, game theoretic aspects of designing international agreements and last but not least energy economic aspects. He specialises in the Economics of Atmospheric Stabilisation, Social Cost-Benefit Analysis, Sustainability Theory, Economic Growth Theory, Environmental Economics, Welfare Theory and General Intertemporal Equilibrium Theory.

In July 2018, Edenhofer was awarded the Romano Guardini Prize by the Katholische Akademie in Bayern (Catholic Academy in Bavaria). This was followed in 2020 by the prestigious Deutsche Umweltpreis (German Environmental Award) by the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU). In December 2020, Ottmar Edenhofer was appointed a consultor of the Vatican's “Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development”, created by Pope Francis a few years ago. In November 2021, he received the Arthur Burkhardt Prize for the interdisciplinary orientation of his research, and in December 2022, the Bavarian Order of the Constitution. In 2023, Edenhofer was appointed to the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BBAW) due to his outstanding scientific achievements.

Edenhofer studied Economics and Philosophy at the University of Munich and holds a diploma in Economics from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich (Prädikatsexamen) and a BA in Philosophy (“summa cum laude”) from the Munich School of Philosophy (Hochschule für Philosophie). During his studies he founded his own enterprise, and between 1991 and 1993 led a humanitarian aid organisation in Bosnia. After working as a research assistant at the Technical University Darmstadt, he wrote his Ph.D. thesis in Economics (“summa cum laude”) in 1999. He accepted the professorship at the TU Berlin in 2008.

 

Current lectures (WS 2023/2024)

The Economics of Climate Policy 
Date: each Friday, 2:15-3:45 p.m.
Location: TU Berlin, room H 1012

 

Latest Publications

Edenhofer, O., Edenhofer, J., Kalkuhl, M., Kilimann, C., 2024

Chancen der Klimapolitik in Zeiten geopolitischer Spannungen

Amos International
Type
Sonstige
Edenhofer et al., 2024

Towards EU climate neutrality: progress, policy gaps and opportunities

European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change
Type
Sonstige
Kellner, M., Rütten, K., Callaghan, M., Kögel, N., Kalkuhl, M., Knopf, B., Edenhofer, O. , 2023

Systematische Verteilungsanalyse zur Wärmewende: Welche Haushalte tragen die Kosten und wie kann die Entlastung aussehen?

MCC Arbeitspapier
Type
Arbeitspapiere
Edenhofer, O., Kowarsch, M., 2023

Klimaschutz und Klimawandel

Handbuch Angewandte Ethik, 2. aktualisierte underweiterte Auflage
Type
Bücher
Bruckner, B., Edenhofer, O., Koch, N., Steckel, J. , 2023

A Regulatory Framework that Would Enable Firms to Compete Internationally without Degrading the Environment

Global Solutions – The World Policy Forum
Type
Sonstige