Summary
Prof. Joeri Rogelj is Director of Research at the Grantham Institute and Professor in Climate Science & Policy at the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London. He explores how societies can transform towards more sustainable futures. His interdisciplinary research connects Earth system sciences to the study of societal change and policy.
Over the past decade, Joeri Rogelj has contributed to major scientific climate change assessments informing international climate policy. He is a long-serving lead author on the annual Emissions Gap Reports by the UN Environment Programme. He served as a contributor to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and as a Coordinating Lead Author on the mitigation pathways chapter for the IPCC's Special Report on 1.5°C of Global Warming. Most recently, he was a Lead Author for the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment. In 2019, he was the youngest member serving on the UN Secretary-General's Climate Science Advisory Group; and since 2022, he serves as one of the fifteen members of the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change, which informs and advises the European Union on its climate action.
Prof. Rogelj publishes on the effectiveness of international climate agreements including the Copenhagen Accord and the Paris Agreement, carbon budgets, emission pathways that limit global warming to 1.5°C and 2°C, global net zero emission targets, and the interaction between climate, sustainable development, and climate justice. He is also active in providing scientific evidence for climate change litigation, for example, in support of Children vs Climate Crisis in which sixteen children from across the world petition the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child to hold five of the world’s leading economic powers accountable for inaction on the climate crisis.
Joeri Rogelj holds a PhD (2013) in climate science from ETH Zurich, Switzerland, and an MSc in Engineering (2003) and a postgraduate degree in Cultures and Development Studies (2005), 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 Senior 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, including leading the Rwanda Hydropower Atlas.
Joeri Rogelj was awarded the 2021 Early Career Scientist Award (Europe) from the International Science Council for exceptional contribution to science and international scientific collaboration by an early career researcher. In 2016, he was awarded the inaugural Piers Sellers Award for his world-leading contributions to solution-focused climate research. In 2014 he received the ETH Medal for his outstanding doctoral dissertation, and in 2011 he received the Peccei Award for outstanding research by a young scientist. Since 2019, he has been a Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher representing the top 1% impactful researchers in the field of Energy & Environment.
Selected Publications
Journal Articles
Hoepner AGF, Rogelj J, 2021, Emissions estimations should embed a precautionary principle, Nature Climate Change, Vol:11, ISSN:1758-678X, Pages:638-640
Rogelj J, Geden O, Cowie A, et al., 2021, Net-zero emissions targets are vague: three ways to fix, Nature, Vol:591, ISSN:0028-0836, Pages:365-368
Andrijevic M, Schleussner C-F, Gidden MJ, et al., 2020, COVID-19 recovery funds dwarf clean energy investment needs., Science, Vol:370, ISSN:1095-9203, Pages:298-300
Forster PM, Forster HI, Evans MJ, et al., 2020, Current and future global climate impacts resulting from COVID-19, Nature Climate Change, Vol:10, ISSN:1758-678X, Pages:913-919
Rogelj J, Forster PM, Kriegler E, et al., 2020, Estimating and tracking the remaining carbon budget for stringent climate targets (vol 571, pg 335, 2019), Nature, Vol:580, ISSN:0028-0836
Höhne N, den Elzen M, Rogelj J, et al., 2020, Emissions: world has four times the work or one-third of the time., Nature, Vol:579, ISSN:0028-0836, Pages:25-28
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
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
Fujimori S, Hasegawa T, Rogelj J, et al., 2018, Inclusive climate change mitigation and food security policy under 1.5 degrees C climate goal, Environmental Research Letters, Vol:13, ISSN:1748-9326
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
Seneviratne S, Wartenburger R, Guillod BP, et al., 2018, Climate extremes, land-climate feedbacks and land-use forcing at 1.5 degrees C, Royal Society of London. Philosophical Transactions A. Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Vol:376, ISSN:1364-503X
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