Born 25 June, 1939 in Zürich, Switzerland. 1965 M.A. Physics, Hamburg; 1969 Ph.D. Biology Freiburg, Germany. 1972 Professor of Biology, Essen University. 1975 Founding President, University of Kassel. 1981 Director, UN Centre for Science and Technology for Development, New York. 1984 Director, Institute for European Environmental Policy, Bonn, London, Paris. 1991 Founding President, Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment, Energy. 1998 Member of Parliament, SPD (serving as Chair, consecutively, of the Bundestag Study Commission on Economic Globalisation, and of the Environment Committee.) 2006 Dean, Bren School for Environmental Science and Management, UC Santa Barbara, California. 2009 retired; pro bono Co-Chair, since 2007, International Resource Panel, and Co-President, since 2012, of the Club of Rome.
Publications: 1992 Ecological Tax Reform: (w/ Jochen Jesinghaus) London: Zed Books. 1994. Earth Politics. London: Zed Books. 1997 Factor Four. Doubling Wealth — Halving Resource Use. w/ Amory and Hunter Lovins, London: Earthscan. 2005 Limits to Privatization (w/ Oran Young and Matthias Finger) London, Earthscan. 2009 Factor Five (w/ Charlie Hargroves et al). London, Earthscan.
Awards: 1989: Premio de Natura, 1996: Duke of Edinburgh Gold Medal of WWF International. 2001: Takeda Award, shared with. F. Schmidt-Bleek. 2008: German Environment Prize. 2010 : Federal High Cross of Merit. 2011 : Theodor Heuss Prize.
Homepage: www.ernst.weizsaecker.de
Contributed to the following reports
-
Decoupling 2
This report explores technological possibilities and opportunities for both developing and developed countries to accelerate decoupling and reap the environmental and economic benefits of increased resource productivity.
-
Decoupling Natural Resource Use and Environmental Impacts from Economic Growth
We are using unsustainable amounts of the Earth’s natural resources. We need to improve the rate of resource productivity (“doing more with less”) faster than the economic growth rate. This is the notion behind “decoupling”.