Jeremy Rifkin is an American economic and social theorist, writer, speaker, political consultant and activist. Jeremy Rifkin is the author of more than 20 bestselling books on the impact of scientific and technological change on the economy, workers, society and the environment.
His books have been translated into more than 35 languages. His most recent books include the international bestsellers Planet Aqua (2024), The Age of Resilience (2022), The Zero Marginal Cost Society (2014), The Third Industrial Revolution (2011), The Empathic Civilization (2010), The European Dream (2004), The Hydrogen Economy (2002), The Age of Access (2000), The Biotech Century (1998), and The End of Work (1995).
Jeremy Rifkin lecture topics
- Planet Aqua – Re-Think the way we live – and want to live
- The Age of Resilience – Reshaping the World’s Existence
- America 3.0 – The resilient society
- Green Deal vs. Blue Deal – Why the fossil fuel civilization will collapse
- The third industrial revolution: How lateral energy is changing energy, the economy and the world
Jeremy Rifkin has been an advisor to the leadership of the European Union since 2000. He has advised three Presidents of the European Commission – Romano Prodi, Jose Manuel Barroso and former President Jean-Claude Juncker – as well as the European Parliament and numerous EU heads of state, including former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, on the introduction of a smart, green economy of the third industrial revolution.
Jeremy Rifkin’s New York Times bestseller “The Third Industrial Revolution” provided the blueprint for the economic transition to an ecological post-carbon society in the European Union. According to The European Energy Review, “perhaps no other author or thinker has had more influence on the EU’s ambitious climate and energy policies than the famous American ‘visionary’ Jeremy Rifkin”. In the words of Germany’s former Vice-Chancellor and Economics Minister Sigmar Gabriel, Jeremy Rifkin is “the economic and ecological world ambassador of the energy transition…” Rifkin presents a great scenario for the future: a visionary approach that no one has dared to imagine in the last fifty years, which will stimulate our thinking and help us find our way.”
Jeremy Rifkin is also advising the leadership of the People’s Republic of China on building and expanding the infrastructure for the internet and the third industrial revolution in order to introduce a sustainable, low-carbon economy. The Huffington Post reported from Beijing on October 29, 2015: “Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has not only read Jeremy Rifkin’s book The Third Industrial Revolution and taken it to heart. He and his colleagues have also made it the core of the country’s thirteenth five-year plan…” The Huffington Post continues: “This plan for China’s future signals the most significant change of direction since the death of Mao and the start of Deng Xiaoping’s reform and opening-up in 1978.”
According to EurActiv, “Jeremy Rifkin is an American economist and author whose bestseller “The Third Industrial Revolution” arguably provided the blueprint for Germany’s transition to a low-carbon economy and China’s strategic acceptance of climate policy”.
Rifkin is one of the main architects of the long-term economic vision of the Third Industrial Revolution and the European Union’s development plan to roll out a digital infrastructure for the Internet of Things across the European Union and its partner regions to create a smart post-carbon economy, an ecological society and the largest integrated economic market in the world. The plan is called “Smart Europe”.
On 31 January 2017, the European Union kicked off the “Smart Europe” digital Third Industrial Revolution modernization plan with a conference hosted by Mario Draghi, President of the European Central Bank, entitled “Into the Future: Europe’s Digital Integrated Market”. Jeremy Rifkin gave a keynote speech on the transformation of the European Union into a smart Third Industrial Revolution paradigm.
The long-term economic development plan “Third Industrial Revolution Smart Europe” was officially presented on February 7, 2017 by Maros Sefcovic, Vice-President of the European Commission, Markku Markkula, President of the Committee of the Regions, and Jeremy Rifkin. Jeremy Rifkin is advising the European Commission on the implementation of the Smart Europe initiative and will work with the 350 formal regions of the EU to create roadmaps to implement the new economic narrative and vision across Europe.
Jeremy Rifkin is President of TIR Consulting Group, LLC, which includes many of the leading renewable energy companies, power transmission companies, engineering firms, construction companies, architectural firms, ICT and electronics companies, transportation and logistics companies, advanced manufacturing companies and economic modelers. Its global economic development team works with cities, regions and national governments to develop the Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure for a collaborative commons and a third industrial revolution. TIR Consulting Group LLC is currently working with the Hauts-de-France, Rotterdam and The Hague metropolitan regions and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg to design, build and expand a smart infrastructure for the Third Industrial Revolution to transform their economies.
Jeremy Rifkin was ranked 123rd in the 2015 WorldPost/HuffingtonPost survey “The World’s Most Influential Voices”. Jeremy Rifkin is also listed among the 10 most influential business thinkers in the survey. The study was conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and used collective intelligence to correlate the rankings.
Since 1995, Jeremy Rifkin has lectured at the Wharton School’s Executive Education Program at the University of Pennsylvania, where he teaches CEOs and senior executives how to transition their companies to a sustainable economy.