Steve’s research focuses on long-run modeling of energy systems and climate change drivers, mitigation, and potential risks, as well as the economics of land-use, agriculture and forestry abatement, and bioenergy as they relate to domestic and international climate change and energy policy.

Some current research interests and areas of publication include energy-water-land linkages, climate change risks and responses, the role of bioenergy in long-run climate management, mitigation institutions, offset mitigation investment risks and incentives, bioelectricity emissions, the economics of REDD+ and agricultural productivity, trade-offs between mitigation and temperature, and the marginal costs of climate change.

Steve was a lead author for the IPCC’s Fifth and Fourth Assessment Reports, and the U.S. National Climate Assessment, as well as for the IPCC’s report on the development of new climate scenarios. In addition, Steve co-chairs the bioenergy modeling subgroup of Stanford University’s Energy Modeling Forum (EMF), serves on the federal government’s U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Program Carbon Cycle Scientific Steering Group, and sat on EPA’s Science Advisory Board panel on Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Biogenic Sources.

Steve received his Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his doctorate in economics from Cornell University.