Gernot Wagner

Gernot Wagner (born 1980) is an American economist and author of "But Will The Planet Notice?" (Hill & Wang, 2011). He works for the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF).

Background and education
He studied at Harvard University, where he graduated in 2002 with a joint degree in Environmental Science, Public Policy, and Economics, in 2006 with a master's in Political Economy and Government and in 2007 with a Ph.D. in Political Economy and Government. He also studied at Stanford University, where he graduated in 2003 with a master's in Economics. While at Harvard, he married Siripanth Nippita, M.D.

He wrote for the editorial board of the Financial Times as a Peter Martin Fellow and worked for The Boston Consulting Group as a consultant before joining EDF. At EDF, he worked on the ultimately unsuccessful campaign to pass cap and trade legislation in the United States in the first term of President Barack Obama's administration. He teaches at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs and is, through 2017, a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

His first book, "Der Rest der Welt," was written in German and appeared in his native Austria.

Book
"But Will The Planet Notice?" is his first English book. It argues how small, individual actions will not solve major environmental problems like global warming. It will, instead, take government regulation like a U.S. cap and trade system to achieve change. The book marks a departure from traditional environmental thinking, where grassroots action looms large. It argues instead that only economics can save the world.

The book gained early notoriety through a New York Times op-ed: "Going Green but Getting Nowhere." It argues that individual action, while necessary, is not sufficient and may distract from what is truly necessary.

A subsequent New York Times op-ed, jointly written with Christian Azar and Thomas Sterner heralds the coming revolution in renewable energy. Other articles focus on the importance of truly free markets and the need to take economics seriously when devising environmental policies.