Scholars
Julia Steinberger
University of Lausanne
Based in
Switzerland
Europe
Professor Julia Steinberger researches Ecological Economics at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland.
After a PhD in experimental physics, Professor Steinberger moved to the interdisciplinary areas of industrial ecology and ecological economics, first as a postdoc at the universities of Lausanne and Zurich, then in Vienna at the Institute of Social Ecology, and subsequently as a professor at the University of Leeds in the UK.
Her research examines the connections between resource use (energy and materials, greenhouse gas emissions) and societal performance (economic activity and human wellbeing).
From 2017 to 2022, she was the recipient of a Leverhulme Research Leadership Award for her research project ‘Living Well Within Limits’, investigating how universal human well-being might be achieved within planetary boundaries.
She was Lead Author for the IPCC’s 6th Assessment Report with Working Group 3. Since 2023, she co-leads the EU ERC Synergy grant “REAL- A Post-Growth Deal” on post-growth societies.
Country(ies) of Specialty
Switzerland United Kingdom United StatesFocus areas of expertise
Greenwashing Climate policy and politics Climate Justice Social movementsHow to Connect
Publications
Articles
Bai, X., et al. ‘Drivers of Urban Energy Use and Main Policy Leverages’. Energizing Sustainable Cities: Assessing Urban Energy, 2012, pp. 119–34.
Baltruszewicz, M., et al. ‘Final Energy Footprints in Zambia: Investigating Links between Household Consumption, Collective Provision, and Well-Being’. Energy Research and Social Science, vol. 73, 2021.
Baltruszewicz, Marta, Julia K. Steinberger, Diana Ivanova, et al. ‘Household Final Energy Footprints in Nepal, Vietnam and Zambia: Composition, Inequality and Links to Well-Being’. Environmental Research Letters, vol. 16, no. 2, Feb. 2021, p. 025011, https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abd588.
Baltruszewicz, Marta, Julia K. Steinberger, Jouni Paavola, et al. ‘Social Outcomes of Energy Use in the United Kingdom: Household Energy Footprints and Their Links to Well-Being’. Ecological Economics, vol. 205, Mar. 2023, p. 107686, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2022.107686.
Bayliss, K., et al. ‘Inequality, Poverty and the Privatization of Essential Services: A ?Systems of Provision? Study of Water, Energy and Local Buses in the UK’. Competition and Change, vol. 25, nos 3–4, 2021, pp. 478–500.
Baynes, T., et al. ‘Comparison of Household Consumption and Regional Production Approaches to Assess Urban Energy Use and Implications for Policy’. Energy Policy, vol. 39, no. 11, 2011, pp. 7298–309.
Binder, C. R., G. Feola, et al. ‘Considering the Normative, Systemic and Procedural Dimensions in Indicator-Based Sustainability Assessments in Agriculture’. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, vol. 30, no. 2, 2010, pp. 71–81.
Binder, C. R., A. Schmid, et al. ‘Sustainability Solution Space of the Swiss Milk Value Added Chain’. Ecological Economics, vol. 83, 2012, pp. 210–20.
Bluwstein, Jevgeniy, et al. ‘Commentary: Underestimating the Challenges of Avoiding a Ghastly Future’. Frontiers in Conservation Science, vol. 2, May 2021, https://doi.org/10.3389/fcosc.2021.666910.
Brand-Correa, L.I., et al. ‘Human Scale Energy Services: Untangling a ?Golden Thread?’ Energy Research and Social Science, vol. 38, 2018, pp. 178–87.
Brand-Correa, L. I., and J. K. Steinberger. ‘A Framework for Decoupling Human Need Satisfaction From Energy Use’. Ecological Economics, vol. 141, 2017, pp. 43–52.
Brand-Correa, Lina I., et al. ‘Understanding (and Tackling) Need Satisfier Escalation’. Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy, vol. 16, no. 1, Oct. 2020, pp. 309–25, https://doi.org/10.1080/15487733.2020.1816026.
Brockway, P.E., H. Saunders, et al. ‘Energy Rebound as a Potential Threat to a Low-Carbon Future: Findings from a New Exergy-Based National-Level Rebound Approach’. Energies, vol. 10, no. 1, 2017.
Brockway, P.E., J. K. Steinberger, et al. ‘Understanding China’s Past and Future Energy Demand: An Exergy Efficiency and Decomposition Analysis’. Applied Energy, vol. 155, 2015, pp. 892–903.
Brockway, Paul E., et al. ‘Divergence of Trends in US and UK Aggregate Exergy Efficiencies 1960-2010’. Environmental Science & Technology, vol. 48, no. 16, 2014, pp. 9874–81.
Busch, J., D. Dawson, et al. ‘Enhancing Stocks and Flows Modelling to Support Sustainable Resource Management in Low Carbon Infrastructure Transitions.’ iEMSs 2012 – Managing Resources of a Limited Planet: Proceedings of the 6th Biennial Meeting of the International Environmental Modelling and Software Society, 2012, pp. 1793–800.
Busch, J., J. K. Steinberger, et al. ‘Managing Critical Materials with a Technology-Specific Stocks and Flows Model’. Environmental Science and Technology, vol. 48, no. 2, 2014, pp. 1298–305.
Capstick, Stuart, et al. ‘Civil Disobedience by Scientists Helps Press for Urgent Climate Action’. Nature Climate Change, vol. 12, no. 9, Aug. 2022, pp. 773–74, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01461-y.
Correa, Lina I. Brand, and Julia K. Steinberger. ‘Max-Neef and Sustainability: Theoretical, Methodological and Empirical Contributions’. International Journal of Sustainable Development, vol. 25, no. 1/2, 2022, p. 114, https://doi.org/10.1504/ijsd.2022.126475.
Creutzig, F., et al. ‘Towards Demand-Side Solutions for Mitigating Climate Change’. Nature Climate Change, vol. 8, no. 4, 2018, pp. 268–71.
Creutzig, Felix, et al. ‘Demand-Side Solutions to Climate Change Mitigation Consistent with High Levels of Well-Being’. Nature Climate Change, vol. 12, no. 1, Nov. 2021, pp. 36–46, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-021-01219-y.
Dawson, David A., et al. ‘Low Carbon Technology Performance vs Infrastructure Vulnerability: Analysis through the Local and Global Properties Space’. Environmental Science & Technology, vol. 48, no. 21, 2014, pp. 12970–77.
Erb, K. H., et al. ‘The Interrelations of Future Global Bioenergy Potentials, Food Demand, and Agricultural Technology’. Socioeconomic and Environmental Impacts of Biofuels: Evidence from Developing Nations, 2012, pp. 27–52.
Fischer-Kowalski, M., and J. K. Steinberger. ‘Social Metabolism and Hybrid Structures’. Journal of Industrial Ecology, vol. 15, no. 5, 2011, pp. 642–44.
Fuchs, D., et al. ‘A Corridors and Power-Oriented Perspective on Energy-Service Demand and Needs Satisfaction’. Sustainability: Science, Practice, and Policy, vol. 17, no. 1, 2021, pp. 163–73.
Gardner, Charlie J., et al. ‘From Publications to Public Actions: The Role of Universities in Facilitating Academic Advocacy and Activism in the Climate and Ecological Emergency’. Frontiers in Sustainability, vol. 2, May 2021, https://doi.org/10.3389/frsus.2021.679019.
Gingrich, S., et al. ‘Long-Term Changes in CO<inf>2</Inf> Emissions in Austria and Czechoslovakia-Identifying the Drivers of Environmental Pressures’. Energy Policy, vol. 39, no. 2, 2011, pp. 535–43.
Gonzalez-Holguera, Julia, et al. ‘Translating Planetary Health Principles Into Sustainable Primary Care Services’. Frontiers in Public Health, vol. 10, July 2022, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.931212.
Haberl, H., K. H. Erb, et al. ‘Global Bioenergy Potentials from Agricultural Land in 2050: Sensitivity to Climate Change, Diets and Yields’. Biomass and Bioenergy, vol. 35, no. 12, 2011, pp. 4753–69.
Haberl, H., J. K. Steinberger, et al. ‘Natural and Socioeconomic Determinants of the Embodied Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production and Its Relation to Other Resource Use Indicators’. Ecological Indicators, vol. 23, 2012, pp. 222–31.
Hickel, J., et al. ‘Urgent Need for Post-Growth Climate Mitigation Scenarios’. Nature Energy, vol. 6, no. 8, 2021, pp. 766–68.
Hickel, Jason, et al. ‘Degrowth Can Work — Here’s How Science Can Help’. Nature, vol. 612, no. 7940, Dec. 2022, pp. 400–03, https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-04412-x.
Hinder, Ben, et al. People, Power, Process: Design Principles for Democratic Planning. 2026, https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.6263503.
Kallis, Giorgos, et al. ‘Post-Growth: The Science of Wellbeing within Planetary Boundaries’. The Lancet Planetary Health, vol. 9, no. 1, Jan. 2025, pp. e62–78, https://doi.org/10.1016/s2542-5196(24)00310-3.
Keil, A. Katharina, and Julia K. Steinberger. ‘Cars, Capitalism and Ecological Crises: Understanding Systemic Barriers to a Sustainability Transition in the German Car Industry’. New Political Economy, vol. 29, no. 1, June 2023, pp. 90–110, https://doi.org/10.1080/13563467.2023.2223132.
Kennedy, C., J. Steinberger, B. Gasson, Y. Hansen, T. Hillman, M. Havránek, et al. ‘Erratum: Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Global Cities (Environmental Science & Technology (2009) 43 (7297-7302) (DOI: 10.1021/Es900213p)’. Environmental Science and Technology, vol. 45, no. 8, 2011, pp. 3816–17.
———. ‘Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Global Cities’. Environmental Science and Technology, vol. 43, no. 19, 2009, pp. 7297–302.
Kennedy, C., J. Steinberger, B. Gasson, Y. Hansen, T. Hillman, M. Havranek, et al. ‘Methodology for Inventorying Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Global Cities’. Energy Policy, vol. 38, no. 9, 2010, pp. 4828–37.
Keyßer, Lorenz, et al. ‘Economic Growth Dependencies and Imperatives: A Review of Key Theories and Their Conflicts’. Ecological Economics, vol. 238, Dec. 2025, p. 108745, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2025.108745.
Knoeri, C., et al. ‘End-User Centred Infrastructure Operation: Towards Integrated End-Use Service Delivery’. Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 132, 2016, pp. 229–39.
Lamb, W. F., G. Mattioli, et al. ‘Discourses of Climate Delay’. Global Sustainability, vol. 3, 2020.
Lamb, W. F., J. K. Steinberger, et al. ‘Transitions in Pathways of Human Development and Carbon Emissions’. Environmental Research Letters, vol. 9, no. 1, 2014.
Lamb, William F., and Julia K. Steinberger. ‘Human Well‐being and Climate Change Mitigation’. WIREs Climate Change, vol. 8, no. 6, Aug. 2017, https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.485.
Marshall, E., et al. ‘Combining Energy Efficiency Measure Approaches and Occupancy Patterns in Building Modelling in the UK Residential Context’. Energy and Buildings, vol. 111, 2016, pp. 98–108.
Mattioli, G., et al. ‘The Political Economy of Car Dependence: A Systems of Provision Approach’. Energy Research and Social Science, vol. 66, 2020.
Millward-Hopkins, J., et al. ‘Providing Decent Living with Minimum Energy: A Global Scenario’. Global Environmental Change, vol. 65, 2020.
O’Neill, Daniel W., et al. ‘A Good Life for All within Planetary Boundaries’. Nature Sustainability, vol. 1, no. 2, Feb. 2018, pp. 88–95, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-018-0021-4.
Oswald, Y., et al. ‘Global Redistribution of Income and Household Energy Footprints: A Computational Thought Experiment’. Global Sustainability, 2021.
Oswald, Yannick, et al. ‘Luxury-Focused Carbon Taxation Improves Fairness of Climate Policy’. One Earth, vol. 6, no. 7, July 2023, pp. 884–98, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2023.05.027.
Papargyropoulou, E., N. Wright, et al. ‘Conceptual Framework for the Study of Food Waste Generation and Prevention in the Hospitality Sector’. Waste Management, vol. 49, 2016, pp. 326–36.
Papargyropoulou, E., J. K. Steinberger, et al. ‘Patterns and Causes of Food Waste in the Hospitality and Food Service Sector: Food Waste Prevention Insights from Malaysia’. Sustainability (Switzerland), vol. 11, no. 21, 2019.
Papargyropoulou, Effie, et al. ‘The Food Waste Hierarchy as a Framework for the Management of Food Surplus and Food Waste’. Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 76, Aug. 2014, pp. 106–15, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.04.020.
Perga, Marie-Elodie, et al. ‘The Climate Change Research That Makes the Front Page: Is It Fit to Engage Societal Action?’ Global Environmental Change, vol. 80, May 2023, p. 102675, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2023.102675.
Pirgmaier, E., and J. K. Steinberger. ‘Roots, Riots, and Radical Change-A Road Less Travelled for Ecological Economics’. Sustainability (Switzerland), vol. 11, no. 7, 2019.
Purnell, Phil, et al. ‘Critical Materials for Infrastructure: Local vs Global Properties’. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers-Engineering Sustainability, vol. 166, no. 5, 2013, pp. 272–80.
Roelich, K., et al. ‘Assessing the Dynamic Material Criticality of Infrastructure Transitions: A Case of Low Carbon Electricity’. Applied Energy, 2014.
Roelich, Katy, et al. ‘Towards Resource-Efficient and Service-Oriented Integrated Infrastructure Operation’. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, vol. 92, 2015, pp. 40–52.
Rohner, Dominic, et al. ‘Decentralized Green Energy Transition Promotes Peace’. Frontiers in Environmental Science, vol. 11, Mar. 2023, https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2023.1118987.
Sahakian, M. D., and J. K. Steinberger. ‘Energy Reduction Through a Deeper Understanding of Household Consumption: Staying Cool in Metro Manila’. Journal of Industrial Ecology, vol. 15, no. 1, 2011, pp. 31–48.
Steinberger, J.K., D. Friot, O. Jolliet, et al. ‘A Spatially Explicit Life Cycle Inventory of the Global Textile Chain’. International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, vol. 14, no. 5, 2009, pp. 443–55.
Steinberger, J.K., F. Krausmann, M. Getzner, et al. ‘Development and Dematerialization: An International Study’. PLoS ONE, vol. 8, no. 10, 2013.
Steinberger, J.K., F. Krausmann, and N. Eisenmenger. ‘Global Patterns of Materials Use: A Socioeconomic and Geophysical Analysis’. Ecological Economics, vol. 69, no. 5, 2010, pp. 1148–58.
Steinberger, J.K., J. Timmons Roberts, G. P. Peters, et al. ‘Pathways of Human Development and Carbon Emissions Embodied in Trade’. Nature Climate Change, vol. 2, no. 2, 2012, pp. 81–85.
Steinberger, J.K., J. van Niel, and D. Bourg. ‘Profiting from Negawatts: Reducing Absolute Consumption and Emissions through a Performance-Based Energy Economy’. Energy Policy, vol. 37, no. 1, 2009, pp. 361–70.
Steinberger, J. K., and F. Krausmann. ‘Material and Energy Productivity’. Environmental Science and Technology, vol. 45, no. 4, 2011, pp. 1169–76.
Steinberger, J. K., and J. T. Roberts. ‘From Constraint to Sufficiency: The Decoupling of Energy and Carbon from Human Needs, 1975-2005’. Ecological Economics, vol. 70, no. 2, 2010, pp. 425–33.
Steinberger, J., and H. Weisz. ‘City Walls and Urban Hinterlands: The Importance of System Boundaries’. Energizing Sustainable Cities: Assessing Urban Energy, 2012, pp. 41–56.
Steinberger, Julia, et al. ‘Democratizing Provisioning Systems: A Prerequisite for Living Well within Limits’. Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy, vol. 20, no. 1, Sept. 2024, https://doi.org/10.1080/15487733.2024.2401186.
Steinberger, Julia K., et al. ‘Your Money or Your Life? The Carbon-Development Paradox’. Environmental Research Letters, vol. 15, no. 4, Mar. 2020, p. 044016, https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab7461.
Tamberg, Lea, et al. Human Need Satisfaction Enables Decoupling of Well-Being from Income. Dec. 2024, https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-5355955/v1.
Teixidó-Figueras, J., et al. ‘International Inequality of Environmental Pressures: Decomposition and Comparative Analysis’. Ecological Indicators, vol. 62, 2016, pp. 163–73.
Timmons Roberts, J., et al. ‘Four Agendas for Research and Policy on Emissions Mitigation and Well-Being’. Global Sustainability, vol. 3, 2020.
Vogel, Jefim, Gauthier Guerin, et al. ‘Safeguarding Livelihoods against Reductions in Economic Output’. Ecological Economics, vol. 215, Jan. 2024, p. 107977, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2023.107977.
Vogel, Jefim, Julia K. Steinberger, et al. Socio-Economic Conditions for Satisfying Human Needs at Low Energy Use: An International Analysis of Provisioning Factors. Mar. 2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-13703.

