Nicholas Stern

Nicholas Stern – Life, Career, and Famous Quotes

Learn about Nicholas Stern (b. April 22, 1946), the British economist behind the landmark Stern Review on climate change. Explore his academic journey, contributions to development and climate economics, his legacy, and memorable quotes.

Introduction

Nicholas Herbert Stern, Baron Stern of Brentford, is a British economist and public intellectual whose work has profoundly shaped how we understand the economics of climate change, development, and intergenerational equity. Best known for authoring the Stern Review (2006) — a major report on the economic impacts of global warming — Stern has served in key academic, governmental, and international roles. Through his career, Stern has highlighted that investing early in climate mitigation is not only environmentally prudent but economically essential.

Early Life, Education & Academic Career

Nicholas Stern was born on 22 April 1946 in Hammersmith, London, England.

Education

• He attended Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he studied mathematics (the Mathematical Tripos) and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree.

• He later pursued graduate studies at Nuffield College, Oxford, obtaining his DPhil (a doctorate in economics) with a thesis titled “Location and the Rate of Development: A Study in the Theory of Optimum Planning”. His doctoral advisor was the Nobel Laureate James Mirrlees.

Academic Appointments

Stern’s academic path included:

• Lecturer at Oxford (1970–1977)

• Professor of Economics at Warwick (1978–1987)

• Faculty at London School of Economics (LSE), where he eventually became Sir John Hicks Professor of Economics

• Later, he held the IG Patel Chair of Economics and Government and became active in the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at LSE.

• In 2010, he also became a Professor at the Collège de France.

Stern’s academic focus spanned economic growth, development economics, and resource economics before turning strongly toward climate economics.

Public Service & Policy Roles

Nicholas Stern has played influential roles in government, international institutions, and policy advisory capacities.

• From 2000 to 2003, Stern served as Chief Economist and Senior Vice President at the World Bank.

• In the UK government, he was recruited by then-Chancellor Gordon Brown to serve in HM Treasury. He became Second Secretary Permanent and headed the Government Economic Service, with responsibilities over public finances and the economic service.

• In 2005, the UK government commissioned him to lead a major review of climate change’s economic impacts — this resulted in the Stern Review (published in October 2006).

• In December 2007, Stern was elevated to the House of Lords as a life peer, taking the title Baron Stern of Brentford, and sits as a crossbench (non-partisan) peer.

• He also served as President of the British Academy from 2013 to 2017.

The Stern Review & Climate Economics

The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change (2006) is perhaps Nicholas Stern’s most prominent contribution to public and academic discourse on climate policy.

Key messages of the Review

• Climate change is the greatest market failure ever seen. The report frames climate change as an externality problem: emitters do not pay for the full social costs, necessitating policy responses (carbon taxes, regulation, trading).

• Strong, early action is cheaper than inaction. Stern argued that the costs of mitigation (roughly 1 % of global GDP annually at the time) are far lower than the long-term damages from unchecked climate change (which could amount to 5–20 % of global GDP or more).

• Distributional equity matters. The Review emphasized that poorer countries and communities will disproportionately suffer from climate impacts, calling for global cooperation and assistance.

• Uncertainty and risk intensify the case for mitigation. The possibility of tipping points, feedback loops (e.g. permafrost methane release), and irreversible damages require precaution.

• Stern acknowledged that in his original Review he underestimated risks, both in terms of climate sensitivity and damages, and he later adjusted estimates upward (for example, raising mitigation cost estimates).

The Stern Review stimulated intense debate on discount rates, modeling, and policy design. Its influence remains strong in climate economics and policy circles.

Themes, Philosophy & Impact

Some recurring themes in Stern’s work and public voice:

• Long-term view & intergenerational justice. He argues that economists must consider future generations seriously, not discount them out of policy.

• Bridging science and economics. Stern sees climate science and economics as deeply interlinked; policy must integrate physical risks with economic modeling.

• Public investment and innovation. He supports policy to drive clean-technology research, carbon pricing, regulation, and infrastructure shifts.

• Ethics and economics are inseparable. For Stern, it is not enough to compute costs and benefits; moral arguments about fairness and rights are essential in climate policy.

• Caution over optimism. While hopeful that action is possible, Stern does not shy from highlighting alarming scenarios if society delays.

His work shifted climate change in many countries from being seen as a technical or environmental issue to a core economic and development challenge.

Legacy & Influence

• The Stern Review remains one of the most cited and discussed economic analyses of climate change worldwide.

• Stern has influenced climate policy in the UK, EU, and many global institutions, encouraging carbon pricing and structural reforms.

• His stock as a climate economist gives him access to international bodies, governments, and think tanks.

• He has helped frame climate change as a core economic challenge, not a peripheral “green” issue.

• Many governments now routinely commission economic assessments of climate policy — a practice to which Stern’s Review contributed.

Famous Quotes by Nicholas Stern

Here are several of his notable and widely shared quotations:

1. “We run enormous risks and we know what kind of reductions of greenhouse gases are necessary to drastically reduce risks.”

2. “The basic scientific conclusions on climate change are very robust … greenhouse gases trap heat, and humans are emitting ever more greenhouse gases.”

3. “Climate change is the greatest market failure the world has ever seen.”

4. “Science and policy-making thrive on challenge and questioning; they are vital to the health of inquiry and democracy.”

5. “We will not overcome world poverty unless we manage climate change successfully … If we fail on one, we fail on the other.”

6. “The one way of guaranteeing to fail is to assume that we will.”

7. “It’s very important that there should be cross-fertilisation between government and academia …”

These quotes encapsulate his urgency, link between climate and development, belief in dialogue between fields, and recognition of risk.

Lessons from Nicholas Stern

1. Act early. Delay compounds risk; proactive mitigation is not a luxury but essential.

2. Integrate disciplines. Real-world problems like climate change require economics, science, ethics, technology, and policy to converge.

3. Think of future generations. Stewardship is a moral as well as economic responsibility.

4. Challenge assumptions. Stern has repeatedly challenged prevailing economic norms (e.g. discounting, “business as usual”).

5. Use rigorous analysis to motivate moral action. Numbers and models convey gravity—but the drive for fairness and duty gives them meaning.

Conclusion

Nicholas Stern is a towering figure in climate economics and public policy. His work—and especially the Stern Review—helped reframe climate change as a central economic and ethical imperative, not only an environmental concern. His legacy lies in mobilizing governments, influencing scholarly debate, and embedding long-term thinking about climate, growth, and justice into mainstream economic discourse.