During this time he also founded an enterprise in the public health sector and led a humanitarian aid organization in Croatia and Bosnia from 1991 to 1993.

After leaving the Order, Edenhofer worked as a research assistant from 1994 to 2000 and completed his PhD in economics summa cum laude at Technische Universität Darmstadt in 1999 under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Carlo C.

[5] In 2018, Edenhofer was appointed director[6] of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research with Earth scientist Johan Rockström.

Since June 2020 Edenhofer is project lead[7] of the major Copernicus research activity Ariadne[8] on the German energy transition.

In June 2021, he was appointed to the World Bank–International Monetary Fund High-Level Advisory Group (HLAG) on Sustainable and Inclusive Recovery and Growth, co-chaired by Mari Pangestu, Ceyla Pazarbasioglu, and Nicholas Stern.

Edenhofer says that his interest in philosophy and economics was influenced by his readings of the works of Henry George,[42] Karl Marx, Max Weber, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and John Dewey.

He points out that both cap-and-trade and a direct carbon tax can be implemented to reduce greenhouse emissions and encourage innovation to preserve the climate.

[44] He feels strongly that moving the global economy to a low-carbon threshold requires huge increases in the use of renewable energy across all economic sectors.