Guntram Wolff

Why organisations work with Guntram Wolff

• His book The Macroeconomics of Decarbonisation (Cambridge University Press) is one of the few analyses that maps how the green transition reshapes fiscal policy, labour markets, public finances, and central banking together – giving leaders a framework, not just commentary.
• He has briefed EU finance ministers at informal ECOFIN and testified to the European Parliament and the Bundestag since 2013 – his analysis informs European policy before it becomes the operating environment for business.
• His concurrent research on European defence economics and rearmament – generating coverage in the Financial Times, Bloomberg, and Le Monde – makes him one of the few economists who can connect climate, security, and fiscal risk in a single board conversation.
• As inaugural holder of the Euroclear Chair in Sustainable Finance at the Solvay Brussels School, he works at the direct intersection of academic research and European financial market infrastructure – relevant to any bank or asset manager assessing ESG transition risk.
• He has served on the IMF External Advisory Group on Surveillance, France’s Conseil d’Analyse Economique, and the G20 High Level Independent Panel on Pandemic Preparedness Financing – a verifiable international policy footprint that most European economic commentators cannot match.

Biography highlights

• Professor of Economics and inaugural holder of the Euroclear Chair in Sustainable Finance, Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Université libre de Bruxelles
• Former Director of Bruegel (2013-2022) and former Director and CEO of the German Council on Foreign Relations/DGAP (2022-2024); senior fellow at Bruegel and the Kiel Institute for the World Economy
• Co-author of The Macroeconomics of Decarbonisation (Cambridge University Press, 2024)
• Research published in Nature, Science, Nature Communications, Energy Policy, and Foreign Affairs; policy commentary in the Financial Times and the New York Times
• Advisory roles include the IMF External Advisory Group on Surveillance, the G20 High Level Independent Panel on Pandemic Preparedness Financing, and France’s Conseil d’Analyse Economique (2012-2016)
• Regular advisor to informal ECOFIN, the European Parliament, and the Bundestag since 2013; PhD in Economics, University of Bonn; fluent in German, English, and French

Biography

European finance ministers have been briefed by Guntram Wolff at informal ECOFIN since 2013 – a run of advisory engagement that tracks the continent’s most consequential economic crises, from euro area governance reform to energy security to the financing of rearmament. That record of access is not incidental. It reflects the specific value of economic analysis that connects academic rigour to the political and institutional constraints that policymakers actually face.

During his nine years directing Bruegel, Wolff built the Brussels-based think tank into one of Europe’s most influential global research institutions. The body of work he developed there spans euro area governance, climate economics, economic statecraft, and European security – with research appearing in Nature, Science, and Foreign Affairs, an unusual range for a European economist. His 2024 book with Cambridge University Press, The Macroeconomics of Decarbonisation, makes the specific case that the green transition is above all a macroeconomic and fiscal policy challenge – a position that distinguishes it from most climate literature.

Since taking the inaugural Euroclear Chair in Sustainable Finance at the Solvay Brussels School, Wolff has extended his research into European defence economics and rearmament, contributing analysis covered by the Financial Times, Bloomberg, and Le Monde. He now works across sustainable finance, security economics, and European governance – giving financial institutions and corporate boards access to analysis that treats these as connected, not parallel, problems.

His advisory and institutional record includes the IMF External Advisory Group on Surveillance, appointed by then-Managing Director Christine Lagarde, and the G20 High Level Independent Panel on Pandemic Preparedness Financing. He is a council member of the European Council on Foreign Relations, has testified to the European Parliament and the Bundestag, and holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Bonn.

Key speaking topics

• European macroeconomics and euro area governance
• Macroeconomics of decarbonisation and the green transition
• Sustainable finance and ESG transition risk
• Geoeconomics and European defence economics
• European energy security and geopolitical risk
• Fiscal policy and the financing of structural transitions
• Euro area reform and European strategic autonomy

Ideal for

• Boards and executive leadership teams with significant European market exposure
• Financial institutions, asset managers, and investors navigating ESG and transition risk
• Government, central bank, and public policy audiences
• International organisations and multilateral forums focused on European or global economic governance

Audience outcomes

• A clearer analytical framework for understanding how decarbonisation, European rearmament, and fiscal reform interact as strategic risks
• Informed perspective on the macroeconomic implications of the green transition – beyond policy advocacy to economic mechanics
• Greater ability to distinguish durable structural shifts in European policy from political noise
• Understanding of how European governance reform and the euro area’s fiscal architecture create risk and opportunity for financial institutions
• Context on geoeconomic dynamics – trade, sanctions, energy, defence spending – that directly affects European business strategy