Dr. Richard S.J. Tol is a distinguished economist and leading authority in the economics of climate change with dual appointments across prominent European institutions. He currently serves as Professor of Economics at the University of Sussex and Professor of the Economics of Climate Change at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam where he holds positions in both the Institute for Environmental Studies and Department of Spatial Economics. After earning his M.Sc. in econometrics from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in 1992 he completed his Ph.D. in economics at the same institution in 1997 with a thesis titled A decision-analytic treatise of the enhanced greenhouse effect. Throughout his career Dr. Tol has held significant positions including Research Professor at the Economic and Social Research Institute in Dublin Michael Otto Professor of Sustainability and Global Change at Hamburg University and Adjunct Professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Department of Engineering and Public Policy. He also maintains research fellowships at the Tinbergen Institute and CESifo reflecting his extensive contributions to economic research.
Dr. Tol has established himself as a preeminent scholar in climate economics through his extensive research on the economic impacts of climate change energy policy and integrated assessment modeling. His prolific output includes over 298 publications in learned journals and three books with his textbook standing as the sole comprehensive resource on the economics of climate change. He is particularly renowned for his meta-analyses of the total economic impact of climate change including his influential but controversial 2009 paper that initially suggested some global warming could yield economic benefits which he later corrected and refined in 2014. As editor-in-chief of Energy Economics and an author for all three working groups of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Dr. Tol has shaped the methodological approaches and policy discussions that define contemporary climate economics research. His work bridges economic theory with climate science to provide rigorous frameworks for understanding the complex interactions between environmental change and economic systems.
Beyond his scholarly contributions Dr. Tol has been instrumental in building the global climate economics community through his leadership roles and extensive collaborations across disciplines. His research has positioned him among the top 100 economists worldwide and top 50 most-cited climate scholars reflecting the significant impact of his work across both economics and environmental science domains. As a Research Fellow at the Tinbergen Institute since 2008 he continues to advance the integration of economic theory with climate science to inform policy decisions. Dr. Tol's current work focuses on developing more nuanced approaches to calculating the social cost of carbon with national characteristics ensuring economic models better reflect regional variations in climate impacts and adaptation capabilities. His ongoing research promises to further refine how policymakers evaluate climate change impacts and design effective mitigation and adaptation strategies.
