Thomas Nils Samuel Sterner (born 22 March 1952) is Swedish economist and a professor of environmental economics at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. His research and publications are mostly focused on the design of policy instruments which address environmental problems. Sterner has published more than 125 articles in refereed journals. He has a Google scholar h-index of 50 (2021). He authored or edited more than a dozen books and a large number of book chapters, official reports and journalistic articles regarding environmental policy instruments. These publications include applications to energy, climate, industry, transport economics and resource management in developing countries.
His main research interests are on discounting and on instrument design for climate and environmental policy. On the latter area, applications range from general climate topics to more specific issues such as carbon pricing, fuel taxes, carbon capture, policies in developing countries, management of fisheries, buildings, transport, chemicals, plastics, antibiotics, biodiversity. Hence, anything related to the circular economy, sustainability or economics of the Anthropocene.
