Gernot Wagner
@gwagner.com
22K followers 2K following 2.2K posts

Climate economist, Columbia https://gwagner.com It’s pronounced juggernaut without the jug.

Gernot Wagner is an Austro-American climate economist at Columbia Business School. He holds an AB and a PhD in political economy and government from Harvard University, as well as an MA in economics from Stanford University. A founding co-director of Harvard's Solar Geoengineering Research Program (2017–2019) he joined the faculty of New York University in 2019, moving to Columbia University in 2022. Wagner writes a monthly column for Project Syndicate, and is the co-author, with Martin L. Weitzman, of Climate Shock, a Top 15 Financial Times-McKinsey Business Book of the Year 2015. He won the "Austrian of the Year" award in 2022, awarded by Austrian daily Die Presse. .. more

Economics 35%
Environmental science 29%
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

gwagner.com
Honey, I invested $100 billion in AI, and all I got was 1 + 2 + 3 = 15
ZackKorman post: Copilot in Excel is a global financial crisis waiting to happen.
filipecampante.bsky.social
Every single paragraph in this article is shocking. I had been quite pessimistic all along, but could not have imagined the speed and depth of the collapse.

gwagner.com
Live from the Hellscape that is DEMOCRAT-CONTROLLED INNER-CITY America, on the New York City SUBWAY no less.

linktr.ee/jembleu
longtimehistory.bsky.social
ICE secretly kidnap autistic boy during bathroom break—never notify parents.

Mother reported him missing a week ago—turns out ICE had him detained the whole time.

He was helping sell fruit and asked to go to the restroom—by the time she was done helping a customer he was gone.

Houston, Texas
davidcorn.bsky.social
A classic case of irresponsible both-sidesism from the NYT. The story is that Trump and MAGA propagandists are lying about Portland to incite a conflict, not that there are different views of the matter.

gwagner.com
Papers, scones, guitar, dog. Saturday.
Dining table with papers
itaisher.bsky.social
An excellent response by MIT’s President Sally Kornbluf rejecting the Trump compact.

Other universities should do the same.

Reposted by Will Lowe

gwagner.com
That's the key, yes:

Brain drain = missing brain gain

Won't make for splashy headlines, but let's just say I'm writing a lot of recommendation letters in A4 instead of Letter-sized format these days.
thijsheus.bsky.social
You won't notice those, is my guess. Those are the international postdocs/PhDs who now choose to go back to Europe/China/... instead of taking positions at the flaghsips.
Much of the US brain drain is going to be a lack of brain gain.

Reposted by Gernot Wagner

thijsheus.bsky.social
You won't notice those, is my guess. Those are the international postdocs/PhDs who now choose to go back to Europe/China/... instead of taking positions at the flaghsips.
Much of the US brain drain is going to be a lack of brain gain.

gwagner.com
You've got to wait until after Monday's announcement to make the move.

gwagner.com
As far as high-profile academics moving out of Trump's America goes, it doesn't get more high-profile than this.

🇺🇸 → 🇨🇭
econ.uzh.ch
We are thrilled to welcome Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee as the new Lemann Foundation Professors to our department, beginning in the summer of 2026.
econ.uzh.ch
We are thrilled to welcome Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee as the new Lemann Foundation Professors to our department, beginning in the summer of 2026.

Reposted by Gernot Wagner

danielhuppmann.bsky.social
“Die 🇺🇸 sichern sich durch fossile Förderung Unabhängigkeit, 🇨🇳 dominiert mit Elektrifizierung & grüner Industrie”, warnen @gwagner.com & @monika-schnitzer.com

Für 🇪🇺 „droht doppelte Abhängigkeit von fossilen Importen aus dem Westen & grünen Technologien aus dem Osten.”
📰 gwagner.com/zeit-industr...
Screenshot des Artikels “Batterien statt Kraftwerke”, Die Zeit
jael.bsky.social
SCOOP: The Bureau of Land Management says the largest solar project in Nevada — the Esmeralda 7 mega-farm — has been canceled

The news was quietly dropped via a sudden website update with no public word from any of the companies involved or a statement from the agency

@heatmap.news
Esmeralda 7 Solar Project Has Been Canceled, BLM Says
It would have delivered a gargantuan 6.2 gigawatts of power.
heatmap.news

Reposted by Gernot Wagner

gwagner.com
It's like Republicans arguing against CO₂ markets.

Sir, you're supposed to be the friend of the market-based solution.

gwagner.com
Almost as if the "market-based" approach was always the Republican solution to a problem whose only other solution is single-payer, government-run
crampell.bsky.social
Republicans have had 15 years to come up with an Obamacare replacement plan. They still haven’t
atrupar.com
Thune: "The president would like to overhaul Obamacare and give people health insurance that is higher quality and more affordable."
crampell.bsky.social
Republicans have had 15 years to come up with an Obamacare replacement plan. They still haven’t
atrupar.com
Thune: "The president would like to overhaul Obamacare and give people health insurance that is higher quality and more affordable."

gwagner.com
Der Text im Print: "Batterien statt Kraftwerke"
Batterien statt Kraftwerke
gwagner.com
"Europa erfindet die Energiewende, China baut sie"

aka

"Batterien statt der 30 bis 40(!) neuen Gaskraftwerke"

Mein Gastbeitrag mit @monika-schnitzer.com in der heutigen @zeit.de

www.zeit.de/2025/43/ener...
Energiepolitik in Deutschland:
Europa erfindet die Energiewende, China baut sie
Deutschland hat es versäumt, eine zukunftsfähige Energiepolitik konsequent zu verfolgen – und davon zu profitieren. Was es jetzt braucht, um wettbewerbsfähig zu bleiben.

Vor 16 Stunden
Ein Gastbeitrag von Monika Schnitzer und Gernot Wagner In Brüssel lässt sich dafür eine wichtige Grundlage schaffen. Wenn wie bisher in jedem Mitgliedstaat der EU andere Vorschriften gelten, entsteht kein Wettbewerbsvorteil gegenüber den USA oder China. Ein gemeinsamer Binnenmarkt für Energie hingegen, abgestimmte Ausbauziele und eine gezielte Industrie- und Investitionspolitik, angetrieben von der lange anvisierten Kapitalmarktunion, könnten Europa wieder zu einem Standort machen, der nicht nur importiert, sondern auch produziert.

Am Ende entscheidet Energiepolitik über mehr als nur über die Strompreise. Sie ist Industrie-, Sicherheits- und Standortpolitik zugleich und damit der Schlüssel dafür, ob Europa seine Zukunft selbst gestaltet – oder sie von anderen geliefert bekommt.
junoryleejournalism.com
David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)
SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems...
SIMON: What?
SHAPIRO: ...Or saying...
SIMON: You imagine that?
SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over.
SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level.
SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this.
SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.
dwallacewells.bsky.social
ICE has been pulling guns on civilians, spraying tear gas in the face of protestors who film them, shooting priests with pepper spray and pellets—and, increasingly it seems, targeting journalists and others trying to document their activities. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/o...
Opinion | ‘ICE Goes Masked for a Single Reason’
www.nytimes.com

merriam-webster.com
What’s the word where you’re from that, when pronounced exactly as it looks, identifies a tourist immediately?

gwagner.com
Oh, Austria, where a 5min delay on a 4-hour ride across ⅔ of the country leads to eye rolls.

±15min is considered "on time" for @amtrak.com 🙄
5min train delay 🙄 Mountain, field, farmhouse. Tyrol.

gwagner.com
Most fun part of Vienna-Innsbruck trip: my parents getting on in St. Pölten (20min east of my hometown), getting out in Linz (20min West), taking a video zooming through my hometown. 😎
Training it through Amstetten

gwagner.com
It's the only way to live.

Science says so

bsky.app/profile/gwag...
gwagner.com
A well-earned spot on the most essential of lists

go.bsky.app/EDtpuEq
Scientists riding Bromptons

gwagner.com
Viennese trains: a dozen trains all arriving within 5min of each other.

The one cancelled local train? 3(!) other trains arriving at the same time going to the same stop.

#WienLiebe

PS: Off to Innsbruck: gwagner.com/uibk-csu

#InnsbruckLiebe
Straßenbahn Wien Meidling