Joeri Rogelj
Senior Research Scholar
Transformative Institutional and Social Solutions Research Group
Energy, Climate, and Environment Program
Senior Research Scholar
Integrated Assessment and Climate Change Research Group
Energy, Climate, and Environment Program
Biography
Joeri Rogelj is a senior research scholar in the IIASA Energy, Climate, and Environment (ECE) Program. He studies how societies can transform towards more sustainable futures. His interdisciplinary research connects Earth system science to the study of societal change and policy.He has published materials on the effectiveness of international climate agreements including the Copenhagen Accord and the Paris Agreement, carbon budgets, emission pathways in line with 1.5°C and 2°C of global warming, net zero emission targets, and the interaction between climate, sustainable development and climate justice.
As a long-serving lead author of the annual UNEP Emissions Gap Reports and reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Rogelj is a leading contributor to scientific assessments that inform international climate policy. He first served as a contributor to the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report focusing on the assessment of carbon budgets, then as a Coordinating Lead Author on mitigation pathways for the IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C, and, most recently, as a Lead Author for the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report. 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 climate action.
He also holds a position as Professor of Climate Science & Policy at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment at Imperial College London.
Rogelj holds a PhD in climate science from ETH Zurich, Switzerland, as well as an MSc in Engineering and a postgraduate degree in Cultures and Development Studies, both from KU Leuven, Belgium. Before joining IIASA, he held research positions at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, and as a post-doctoral researcher at ETH Zurich. His professional background further includes three years as a project engineer in the field of rural electrification and drinking water systems in Rwanda.
In 2021, Rogelj was awarded the Early Career Scientist Award (Europe) from the International Science Council for his significant contribution to science and international scientific collaboration by an early career researcher. In 2016, he received the inaugural Piers Sellers Award for his exceptional contribution to solution-focused climate research. Earlier, in 2014, he received the ETH Medal for his doctoral dissertation, and the 2011 Peccei Award for his research as a young scientist at IIASA. Since 2019, he has been a Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher, representing the top 1% impactful researchers in the field of energy and environment.
Last update: 17 OCT 2023
Publications
Forster, P. M., Smith, C. , Walsh, Tristram, Lamb, W.F., Lamboll, R., Cassou, C., Hauser, M., Hausfather, Z., Lee, J.-Y., Palmer, M.D., von Schuckmann, K., Slangen, A.B.A., Szopa, S., Trewin, B., Yun, J., Gillett, N.P., Jenkins, S., Matthews, H.D., Raghavan, K., Ribes, A., Rogelj, J. , Rosen, D., Zhang, X., Allen, M., Aleluia Reis, L., Andrew, R.M., Betts, R.A., Borger, A., Broersma, J.A., Burgess, S.N., Cheng, L., Friedlingstein, P., Domingues, C.M., Gambarini, M., Gasser, T. , Gütschow, J., Ishii, M., Kadow, C., Kennedy, J., Killick, R.E., Krummel, P.B., Liné, A., Monselesan, D.P., Morice, C., Mühle, J., Naik, V., Peters, G.P., Pirani, A., Pongratz, J., Minx, J.C., Rigby, M., Rohde, R., Savita, A., Seneviratne, S.I., Thorne, P., Wells, C., Western, L.M., van der Werf, G.R., Wijffels, S.E., Masson-Delmotte, V., & Zhai, P. (2025). Indicators of Global Climate Change 2024: annual update of key indicators of the state of the climate system and human influence. Earth System Science Data 10.5194/essd-2025-250. (Submitted)
Kikstra, J. , Daioglou, V., Min, J. , Sferra, F., Soergel, B., Kriegler, E., Lee, H., Mastrucci, A. , Pachauri, S. , Rao, N. , Rauner, S., van Vuuren, D., Riahi, K. , van Ruijven, B. , & Rogelj, J. (2025). Closing decent living gaps in energy and emissions scenarios: introducing DESIRE. Environmental Research Letters 20 (5) e054038. 10.1088/1748-9326/adc3ad.
Scheifinger, K. , Brutschin, E. , Zimm, C. , Mintz-Woo, K. , Kikstra, J. , Pachauri, S. , Rogelj, J. , Riahi, K. , Żebrowski, P. , Sovacool, B., Schinko, T. , Low, S., & Fritz, L. (2025). Breaking Barriers with Patterns: New Tools for Integrating Distributional Justice into Global Mitigation Scenarios. DOI:10.5194/egusphere-egu25-12797. In: EGU General Assembly 2025, 27 April-02 May 2025, Vienna.
Pelz, S. , Ganti, G. , Lamboll, R., Grant, L., Smith, C. , Pachauri, S. , Rogelj, J. , Riahi, K. , Thiery, W., & Gidden, M.J. (2025). Using net-zero carbon debt to track climate overshoot responsibility. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 122 (13) e2409316122. 10.1073/pnas.2409316122.
Xie, J.J., Escher, N.A., Dunn, M.E., Yu, Y., Staffell, I., & Rogelj, J. (2025). Tracing inclusivity at UNFCCC conferences through side events and interest group dynamics. Nature Climate Change 15 270-278. 10.1038/s41558-025-02254-9.