David William Pearce OBE (11 October 1941 – 8 September 2005) was Emeritus Professor at the Department of Economics at University College London and a pioneer of environmental economics.
[1] He is known for setting out valuation techniques for natural phenomena, arguing that the environment is "under-priced" and that the benefit of environmental services may be calculated.
[2] His early work was on cost-benefit analysis, and the economics of pollution and natural resource depletion, before these ideas entered the mainstream of the economic sciences and policymaking.
[3][1] Pearce was the chief environmental adviser to government ministers Christopher Patten and Michael Heseltine, and a convening lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
He went on to hold academic posts at the Universities of Lancaster, Southampton, Leicester, and Aberdeen before arriving at University College London as Professor of Political Economy, and later Economics.