Joel Jaeger is a Senior Research Associate at the World Resources Institute. His research focuses on the economics of climate policy, green jobs, and nonlinear systems change. He leads the assessment of global climate progress for the Systems Change Lab platform and the State of Climate Action report series. He led WRI’s global research on a green and inclusive recovery from COVID-19. He has co-led research projects on the economic opportunities of climate action in the United States and an assessment of the job opportunities and challenges of electric vehicles in Michigan.

Joel previously worked in communications and research for WRI's New Climate Economy project, contributing to the 2016 and 2018 New Climate Economy reports. During his studies at Johns Hopkins SAIS, he supported climate negotiators in the U.S. Department of State's Office of Global Change and did research on climate policy and electric vehicles for the Edison Electric Institute, the trade association of U.S. electric utilities. He has also worked as a journalist for the Inter Press Service at the United Nations headquarters and interned at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Joel holds a B.A. in Political Science from St. Olaf College and an M.A. in Energy, Resources, and Environment from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.