Somewhat Resilient
Last Update: 6/19/2026
AI Resilience Score for Environmental Economists:
42.1%
Median Score
Meaningful human contribution
Measures the parts of the occupation that still require a human touch. This score averages data from up to four AI exposure datasets, focusing on the role’s resilience against automation.
Med
Long-term employer demand
Predicts the health of the job market for this role through 2034. Using Bureau of Labor Statistics data, it balances projected annual job openings (60%) with overall employment growth (40%).
Low
Sustained economic opportunity
Measures future earning potential and career flexibility. This score is a blend of total projected labor income (67%) and the role’s inherent ability to adapt to economic and technological shifts (33%).
Med
This reflects the reliability of your score based on the number of data sources available for this career and how closely those sources agree on the outlook. A higher confidence means more consistent evidence from labor experts and AI models.
There are a reasonable number of sources for this result, but there is some disagreement between them.
Contributing sources
AI Resilience Report forEnvironmental Economists
$115,440 median salary•900 annual openings•SOC Code: 19-3011.01
Environmental Economists are somewhat less resilient to AI impacts than most occupations, according to our analysis of 5 sources.
Environmental economists land in the "Somewhat Resilient" category because AI is genuinely changing their day-to-day work in meaningful ways, even while the career itself stays in demand. Tools like machine learning and generative AI are already taking over a lot of the data crunching, coding, and early-stage modeling that used to fill an economist's schedule, so the job is shifting rather than disappearing.
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Environmental economists land in the "Somewhat Resilient" category because AI is genuinely changing their day-to-day work in meaningful ways, even while the career itself stays in demand. Tools like machine learning and generative AI are already taking over a lot of the data crunching, coding, and early-stage modeling that used to fill an economist's schedule, so the job is shifting rather than disappearing.
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Environmental Economists
Updated Quarterly
How is AI changing Environmental Economists jobs?
Right now, AI mostly helps environmental economists rather than replacing them. Researchers in Nature Climate Change recently explained how advanced AI "foundation models" can integrate knowledge across climate risks and societal responses to support better climate decision-making [1], which is exactly the kind of complex modeling environmental economists do. A 2025 review in Bioscience notes that building ecosystem models has traditionally been limited to a small global community of experts, but user-friendly generative AI tools could democratize the work and let both experts and nonspecialists build models [2].
At Resources for the Future, economists have already shown that machine learning prediction algorithms like XGBoost, random forests, and LASSO can recover real treatment effects in electricity-demand policy studies [3] — meaning AI is being used as a tool inside policy analysis, not as a substitute for the economist. The same Bioscience authors warn that the rise of these tools also creates concerns about data integrity, bias, interpretation reliability, and the potential erosion of human expertise, so human engagement and control remain essential [2]. Judgment about ethics, equity, and policy trade-offs still belongs to people.
Sources
How fast is AI adoption growing for Environmental Economists?
Adoption is moving steadily but cautiously. On the "fast" side, the Brookings Institution reports that AI exposure measures rank many analytical and office-based occupations as highly likely to be augmented or replaced by AI [4], and the World Economic Forum argues that AI is fundamentally transforming the global job market and changing skill requirements across advanced and emerging economies [5]. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics similarly projects that growing adoption of AI, including generative AI tools, will dampen labor demand in fields like sales, design, and administrative support [6] — but it highlights renewable-energy industries as the fastest-growing, suggesting demand for environmental expertise is rising.
On the "slow" side, the Environmental Defense Fund points out that AI itself creates real environmental costs from data-center electricity and water use [7], which environmental economists are actually being hired to study. Public-policy work also requires transparency, peer review, and legal defensibility, so government agencies and journals adopt new tools carefully. The honest takeaway: AI will reshape the daily tasks of an environmental economist — handling data crunching, coding, and first-draft modeling — while the human skills of framing policy questions, weighing fairness, and communicating with communities are becoming more valuable, not less.
Sources
Will AI replace Environmental Economists?
Not entirely. We think AI will take over some tasks, but not the whole job.
Environmental economists already work alongside AI tools that handle data crunching, modeling, and first-draft analysis. Researchers have shown that machine learning algorithms can recover real treatment effects in policy studies [3], and generative AI is making ecosystem modeling accessible to a wider range of practitioners [2]. That is genuinely useful, but it is augmentation, not replacement.
What stays human is the harder part of the job: framing the right policy questions, weighing fairness and equity, and communicating trade-offs to communities and lawmakers. Those tasks require judgment and trust that AI cannot supply. Our 42.1% AI Resilience Score reflects this tension, a role that will change meaningfully but will not disappear.
The job market picture is the real caution here. Employer demand through 2034 is on the weaker side, and AI exposure measures rank many analytical roles as likely to be reshaped [4]. One bright spot: AI's own environmental costs, including data-center energy and water use, are creating new work for environmental economists to study [7]. The honest advice is to build skills in policy communication and ethical analysis alongside technical fluency, because that combination is what will hold value as the tools keep changing.
Sources
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Latest AI news for Environmental Economists
These articles highlight how AI intersects with environmental economics, offering promising avenues for future careers. For instance, the NSF award-winning project on AI-assisted environmental risk modeling showcases the potential for innovative solutions to environmental challenges. Additionally, the findings on AI's lower-than-expected energy demands suggest that AI can aid in climate mitigation efforts, presenting a unique opportunity for economists to integrate sustainable practices into their work. Embracing AI resilience can position environmental economists at the forefront of impactful climate action.
Volatility spillover between the energy and AI markets: a TVP-VAR approach
www.frontiersin.org • 4/13/2026
With the growing energy consumption from AI model training and use, as well as the increasing integration of AI into the energy industry, the AI and energy...
Study Debunks Major Myth: AI’s Energy Usage Is Significantly Less Than Feared
scitechdaily.com • 11/17/2025
A new study finds that AI's energy demands may have a much smaller climate impact than expected, with hints that AI could even accelerate...
‘Roadmap’ shows the environmental impact of AI data center boom
news.cornell.edu • 11/10/2025
Researchers used advanced data analytics to create a state-by-state look at that environmental impact of the AI boom and how to make the...
New Mexico Tech Interdisciplinary Team Receives NSF Award for AI-Assisted Environmental Risk Modeling
www.nmt.edu • 9/9/2025
An interdisciplinary team of New Mexico Tech management and computer science faculty has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF)...
Green and intelligent: the role of AI in the climate transition - npj Climate Action
www.nature.com • 6/23/2025
We explore five key impact areas through which AI can be particularly effective in supporting the climate transition, across mitigation, adaptation and...
More Career Info
Career: Environmental Economists
They study how people use natural resources and suggest ways to protect the environment while supporting economic growth.
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Employment & Wage Data
Median Wage
$115,440
Jobs (2024)
17,600
Growth (2024-34)
+1.2%
Annual Openings
900
Education
Master's degree
Experience
None
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2024-2034
Task-Level AI Resilience Scores
AI-generated estimates of task resilience over the next 3 years
1
Demonstrate or promote the economic benefits of sound environmental regulations.
2
Identify and recommend environmentally-friendly business practices.
3
Prepare and deliver presentations to communicate economic and environmental study results, to present policy recommendations, or to raise awareness of environmental consequences.
4
Monitor or analyze market and environmental trends.
5
Assess the costs and benefits of various activities, policies, or regulations that affect the environment or natural resource stocks.
6
Examine the exhaustibility of natural resources or the long-term costs of environmental rehabilitation.
7
Write social, legal, or economic impact statements to inform decision-makers for natural resource policies, standards, or programs.
Tasks are ranked by their AI resilience, with the most resilient tasks shown first. Core tasks are essential functions of this occupation, while supplemental tasks provide additional context.
