Richels received a BS degree in physics from the College of William & Mary.
He was a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Second, Third and Fourth Assessment Reports (the IPCC shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore) and served on the Synthesis Team for the US National Assessment of Climate Change Impacts on the United States.
He has served as Editor of the Energy, Environment and National Resources area of the Operations Research Journal.
Richels is a co-author of Buying Greenhouse Insurance - the Economic Costs of CO2 Emission Limits (with Alan S. Manne),[1] and of Economic and environmental choices in the stabilization of atmospheric CO2 concentrations (with Tom Wigley and Jae Edmonds).
Richels is a researcher on integrated assessment modelling for climate change, and regularly appears in the media.