Michael Obersteiner
Principal Research Scholar
Exploratory Modeling of Human-natural Systems Research Group
Advancing Systems Analysis Program
Biography
Michael Obersteiner is director of the Environmental Change Institute at Oxford University. He first joined IIASA as part of the former Forestry Program in 1993. He was Program Director of the former IIASA Ecosystems Services and Management (ESM) Program until June 2019, where he led and developed the ESM Program from its inception to an inter-disciplinary research cluster of over 100 staff. His background includes the fields of global terrestrial ecosystems and economics, having completed graduate studies both in Austria (BOKU University and the Institute for Advanced Studies Vienna) and abroad (Columbia University, New York, and the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk). His current research at IIASA stretches from modeling robust Earth system management and supporting the FABLE consortium, to economic stress-testing of supply chain networks.Obersteiner has led large scale interdisciplinary research projects in the fields of integrated assessment of climate, energy, and land-use. He is the author of over 300 scientific papers covering a very wide range of science fields. He currently serves in the Climate Overshoot Commission and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)'s international resource panel. In addition, he is a lead convening author of two chapters of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and a steering member of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR)'s Global Assessment Report.
Last update: 28 NOV 2023
Publications
Obersteiner, M. , Nilsson, S., & Woergoetter, A. (2000). Environmental and economic effects of support to the Austrian pulp and paper industry. In: Improving the Environment through Reducing Subsidies, Part III, Case Studies. pp. 213-239 [2000]: OECD/Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. ISBN 92-64-17093-6
Nilsson, S., Jonas, M. , & Obersteiner, M. (2000). The Forgotten Obligations in the Kyoto Negotiations. Short paper prepared for and presented at COP6 Meeting, The Hague, Netherlands, November [2000] , IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria.
Obersteiner, M. (2000). A model for the Siberian timber products market: An engineering-economic approach. In: Global Concerns for Forest Resource Utilization: Sustainable Use and Management. Eds. Yoshimoto, A. & Yukutake, K., Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. ISBN 0-7923-5968-2
Jonas, M. , Nilsson, S., Obersteiner, M. , Gluck, M., & Ermoliev, Y.M. (1999). Verification Times Underlying the Kyoto Protocol: Global Benchmark Calculations [Revised February 2000]. IIASA Interim Report. IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria: IR-99-062
Obersteiner, M. (1999). Production Functions and Efficiency Analysis of the Siberian Forest Industry: An Enterprise Survey 1989 and 1992. IIASA Interim Report. IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria: IR-99-060