Summary
Dr Joeri Rogelj is Director of Research and Lecturer in Climate Change and the Environment at the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London. His interdisciplinary research aims at informing evidence-based climate policy. It focuses on the scientific assessment of international climate agreements, the identification and response to major gaps in knowledge for effective and resilient climate policy, and the development of new concepts bridging the divide between social and physical sciences.
Over the past decade, Joeri Rogelj has taken part in several major scientific climate change assessments informing the international climate negotiations under the UNFCCC. He is a long-serving lead author on the Emissions Gap Reports - which are annual policy synthesis reports by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). He contributed to the physical science and climate change mitigation assessment of Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), served as a Coordinating Lead Author for the IPCC Special Report on 1.5°C of Global Warming, and is currently a Lead Author for the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment. He continues to follow the UNFCCC climate negotiations as a scientific advisor and was the youngest member serving on the UN Secretary-General's Climate Science Advisory Group from 2019 to 2020.
He has published on the potential effectiveness of international climate agreements including the Copenhagen Accord and the Paris Agreement, carbon budgets, implications of delaying climate mitigation action, the mitigation potential of short-lived climate forcers, global zero emission targets, the interaction between climate and sustainable development, the appropriateness of global temperature targets like 2°C, and emission pathways that limit global warming to 1.5°C and 2°C.
Joeri Rogelj holds a PhD in climate science from ETH Zurich, Switzerland, and a Master's degree in Engineering and a postgraduate degree in Cultures and Development Studies, both from KU Leuven, Belgium. Before joining the Grantham Institute, he held research positions at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK, Germany), as a post-doctoral researcher at ETH Zurich, and as a Research Scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA, Austria) with whom he continues to collaborate. His professional background further includes three years as a project engineer in the field of rural electrification and drinking water systems in Rwanda.
In 2011 he received the Peccei Award for outstanding research by a young scientist, and in 2014 he received the ETH Medal for his outstanding doctoral dissertation. In 2016, he was awarded the inaugural Piers Sellers Award for his world-leading contributions to solution-focused climate research. He is a Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher representing the top 1% impactful researchers in the field of Energy & Environment.
Selected Publications
Journal Articles
Rogelj J, Schleussner C-F, 2019, Unintentional unfairness when applying new greenhouse gas emissions metrics at country level, Environmental Research Letters, Vol:14, ISSN:1748-9326, Pages:1-9
Jones CD, Froelicher TL, Koven C, et al., 2019, The Zero Emissions Commitment Model Intercomparison Project (ZECMIP) contribution to C4MIP: quantifying committed climate changes following zero carbon emissions, Geoscientific Model Development, Vol:12, ISSN:1991-959X, Pages:4375-4385
Rogelj J, Huppmann D, Krey V, et al., 2019, A new scenario logic for the Paris Agreement long-term temperature goal, Nature, Vol:573, ISSN:0028-0836, Pages:357-363
Rogelj J, Forster PM, Kriegler E, et al., 2019, Estimating and tracking the remaining carbon budget for stringent climate targets, Nature, Vol:571, ISSN:0028-0836, Pages:335-342
Grubler A, Wilson C, Bento N, et al., 2018, A low energy demand scenario for meeting the 1.5 degrees C target and sustainable development goals without negative emission technologies, Nature Energy, Vol:3, ISSN:2058-7546, Pages:515-527
Rogelj J, Popp A, Calvin KV, et al., 2018, Scenarios towards limiting global mean temperature increase below 1.5 degrees C, Nature Climate Change, Vol:8, ISSN:1758-678X, Pages:325-+
Mengel M, Nauels A, Rogelj J, et al., 2018, Committed sea-level rise under the Paris Agreement and the legacy of delayed mitigation action, Nature Communications, Vol:9, ISSN:2041-1723
Rogelj J, Schleussner C-F, Hare W, 2017, Getting it right matters: temperature goal interpretations in geoscience research, Geophysical Research Letters, Vol:44, ISSN:0094-8276, Pages:10662-10665
Rogelj J, Fricko O, Meinshausen M, et al., 2017, Understanding the origin of Paris Agreement emission uncertainties, Nature Communications, Vol:8, ISSN:2041-1723
Schleussner C-F, Rogelj J, Schaeffer M, et al., 2016, Science and policy characteristics of the Paris Agreement temperature goal, Nature Climate Change, Vol:6, ISSN:1758-678X, Pages:827-835
Rogelj J, Schaeffer M, Friedlingstein P, et al., 2016, Differences between carbon budget estimates unravelled, Nature Climate Change, Vol:6, ISSN:1758-678X, Pages:245-252