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Simon Dietz

Professor of Environmental Policy
Department of Geography and Environment, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment

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About

About

Simon Dietz is Professor of Environmental Policy in the Department of Geography and Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and Research Director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and the TPI Global Climate Transition Centre. He joined the LSE faculty in 2006, became Senior Lecturer in 2011 and was promoted to Professor in 2015. He co-founded the Grantham Research Institute in 2008 and previously served as its director/co-director before returning as Research Director in 2025.

Simon's research spans climate change, sustainability, decision-making under uncertainty, equity within and between generations, integrated assessment modelling, insurance, corporate sustainability and climate finance. He works with governments, businesses and NGOs on issues including carbon pricing and sustainable investing. His wider roles include co-editor of the Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, CEPR Research Fellow, CESifo Research Network Fellow and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Before joining LSE, he worked at HM Treasury on the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change.

Selected Honours and Appointments

  • Research Fellow, CEPR (2024)
  • Research Network Fellow, CESifo (2019)
  • European Award for Researchers in Environmental Economics under the Age of Forty, EAERE (2018)
  • Finance for the Future Award for Driving Change Through Education, Training & Academia (with TPI colleagues, 2018)
  • Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (2016)
  • LSE Teaching Prize for outstanding teaching performance (2015)

Research interests

  • Climate change
  • Sustainability
  • Environmental and resource economics
  • Integrated assessment modelling
  • Public and welfare economics
  • Insurance
  • Corporate sustainability
  • Climate finance.

Current and recent projects

“The social welfare value of the global food system” (with Benjamin Bodirsky, Michael Crawford, Ravi Kanbur et al.), Ecological Economics, 239, 108771, 2026

“Translating climate science into legal standards: Lessons from the Milieudefensie v. Shell case” (with Joana Setzer et al.), Science, 391(6780), 26-29, 2026

“Global methane action pays for itself at least six times over” (with Thomas Stoerk, James Rising and Drew Shindell), Science, 390(6772), eadu7392, 2025

“Optimal climate policy under exogenous and endogenous technical change: making sense of the different approaches” (with Léo Coppens and Frank Venmans), Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 133, 103216, 2025

“Growth and adaptation to climate change in the long run” (with Bruno Lanz), European Economic Review, 175, 104982, 2025

“Synthesis of evidence yields high social cost of carbon due to structural model variation and uncertainties” (with Frances Moore, Moritz Drupp, James Rising, Ivan Rudik and Gernot Wagner), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 121(52), e2410733121, 2024

“Introduction to integrated assessment modeling of climate change”, in Lint Barrage and Solomon Hsiang (eds.) Handbook of the Economics of Climate Change, North-Holland, Volume 1, Issue 1, 1-51, 2024

“Economic impacts of melting of the Antarctic Ice Sheet” (with Felix Koninx), Nature Communications, 13, 5819, 2022

“How ambitious are oil and gas companies’ climate goals?” (with Dan Gardiner, Valentin Jahn and Jolien Noels), Science, 374(6566), 405-408, 2021

“Economic impacts of tipping points in the climate system” (with James Rising, Thomas Stoerk and Gernot Wagner), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(34), e2103081118, 2021

Grants and funding

Simon’s research is currently funded by the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, and the TPI Global Climate Transition Centre

Working papers and collaborations

“Corporate net zero targets: have they achieved anything?” (with Nikolaus Hastreiter), 2026

“Towards comprehensive assessments of national climate damages: an application to the United Kingdom” (with James Rising, Ritika Khurana, Marion Dums, Jarmo Kikstra, Timothy M. Lenton, Manuel Linsenmeier, Chris Smith and Bob Ward), 2025

“Optimal climate policy as if the transition matters” (with Emanuele Campiglio and Frank Venmans), CESifo Working Paper 10139, Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy Working Paper 412, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment Working Paper 387, 2022

Courses taught

  • Climate Change: Science, Economics and Policy, GY427 (MSc; Winter Term)
  • Applied Environmental Economics, GY222 (BSc; Winter Term)
  • Climate Change: Economics, Policy and Strategy in an Age of Uncertainty (Executive Course, February and June