Homepage of Prof. Dr. Ottmar Edenhofer

News

The paper "Risk management and climate change" is now available in the "Nature Climate Change" magazine. The "Süddeutsche Zeitung" also reports on this paper. Link

The paper "Renewable energy subsidies: Second-best policy or fatal aberration for mitigation?" is now available from the "Resource and Energy Economics" Journal. pdf

The Lecture of Ottmar Edenhofer was broadcast by Deutschlandradio on 6 March 2013 with the title "Aus dem Gehäuse der Hörigkeit ausbrechen - Modelle der wissenschaftlichen Politikberatung." Link

Interview with Ottmar Edenhofer from the "Philosophie" magazine February/March 2013. pdf

Climatic Change. Volume 114 - No.1 - September 2012 is now available in hardcopy

Ottmar Edenhofer served as guest editor and co-author of this edition.

The Wealth of the Commons - A World beyond Market & State is now available in hardcopy

Global Trends is now available in hardcopy

Global Trends 2013 - A Guide through a World in Transition... more

Short biography

Prof. Dr. Ottmar Edenhofer is professor of the Economics of Climate Change (appointment together with the Michael Otto Stiftung) at the Technische Universität Berlin and Co-Chair of the Working Group III of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. He is Deputy Director and Chief Economist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and is currently leading Research Domain III - Sustainable Solutions - that focuses on research in the field of the Economics of Atmospheric Stabilisation. He is director of the newly founded Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC). He is member of the Science-Industry Cooperation, member of the Workgroup Climate, Energy and Environment within the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina,  and advises the World Bank as a member of the advisory committee of the Green Growth Knowledge Platform.

Under his leadership, Working Group III has carried out the Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation. The report has been published in 2011. It has been discussed widely in the public arena (Nature, NY Times, Report by Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon in the UN General Assembly, BMU, BMBF, etc) and has also launched a scientific debate on the future role of renewables. Together with his Co-Chairs Ramon Pichs and Youba Sokona he has taken on the responsibility for the Fifth Assessment Report of IPCC's Working Group III which will be published in 2014. In the Fifth Assessment Report Working Group III explores the options to mitigate climate change. He has published articles in Science, Energy Journal, Energy Economics, Energy Policy, Nature Climate Change, and other peer-reviewed journals and authored a number of books.

Prof. Dr. Ottmar Edenhofer’s research explores the impact of induced technological change on mitigation costs and mitigation strategies, as well as the design of instruments for climate and energy policy. He specializes in the Economics of Atmospheric Stabilization, Social Cost-Benefit Analysis, Sustainability Theory, Economic Growth Theory, Environmental Economics, Welfare Theory and General Intertemporal Equilibrium Theory. He leads and coordinates several externally funded research projects and was a Lead Author for the Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC from 2004 until 2007. In 2005 he became a Fellow of the Hanse Institute for Advanced Study in Delmenhorst. He is currently supervising several PhD students and Master students.

Prof. Dr. Ottmar Edenhofer (born 1961 in Bavaria) 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 Hochschule für Philosophie Munich. During his studies he founded his own enterprise, and between 1991 and 1993 led a humanitarian aid organisation in Bosnia. He worked as a research assistant at the Technical University Darmstadt and wrote his Ph.D. thesis in Economics (“summa cum laude”) in 1999. He accepted the professorship at the TU Berlin in 2008.

In addition to his teaching and research, he is actively involved in public policy and in the public debate in Germany and at the EU level. Until 2009 he was key climate change advisor to federal foreign minister and deputy-chancellor Frank-Walter Steinmeier. He was a member of the Advisory Board of the German Information Centre for Carbon Dioxide Technologies, IZ Klima.

Edenhofer has been interviewed by ARD and ZDF several times for their nationwide news. His interviews have been published in NATURE, DIE ZEIT, WELT and Sueddeutsche Zeitung. He has written widely noted articles in FAZ and in Sueddeutsche Zeitung. His work has been highlighted in German broadcasts like Deutschlandfunk and reported on by large news agencies like Reuters and ap.

(Foto: Marco Urban, PIK)