Edward B. Barbier
Edward B. Barbier is a University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Economics, Colorado State University and a Senior Scholar in CSU’s School of Global Environmental Sustainability. He previously held positions at University of Wyoming, University of York and the International Institute of Environment and Development, and was a Visiting Fellow, Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford. He has also consulted for a variety of national, international and non-governmental agencies, including many UN organizations, the World Bank and the OECD.
Barbier is a highly cited and leading scholar on the economics of environmental and sustainability issues (see Google Scholar, ScholarGPS and AD Scientific Index). He has authored over 350 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, written or edited 27 books, and published in popular journals and social media. He authored the UN’s Global Green New Deal, for which he is world renowned. Among his honors and awards is the Mazzotti Prize (Italy) for contributions to economics and ecology, and he was named by Cambridge University as one of the world’s 50 most influential thinkers on sustainability. Barbier is an elected Fellow of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.
Barbier’s latest books include The Water Paradox: Overcoming the Global Crisis in Water Management (Yale University Press, 2019), Natural Resources and Economic Development (Cambridge University Press, 2019, 2nd ed.), Economics of the SDGs: Putting the Sustainable Development Goals into Practice (with Joanne Burgess, Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), and Economics for a Fragile Planet (Cambridge University Press, 2022), which was Winner of the 2022 Choice Outstanding Academic Titles. He has also published a textbook, Economics for a Sustainable World: An Introduction to Natural Resource and Environmental Economics (with Joanne Burgess, Cambridge University Press, 2025).
Research Interests
- Environmental and resource economics
- Development economics
- Ecosystem services
- Sustainability and sustainable development
- Green economy