Hans Opschoor

The ASCL is saddened by the news that Prof. Dr J.B. (Hans) Opschoor (1944-2026) passed away on 4 May 2026. Hans Opschoor was a former chair of the Foundation African Studies Centre (Stichting Afrika-Studiecentrum).

Opschoor was a prominent figure in the field of environmental and ecological economics. From 1978 onwards, he specialised in international aspects of these fields, especially the North-South nexus. He worked and lived in Botswana where he was a researcher at the National Institute for Research, University of Botwana. As a representative of that university he was one of the founders of OSSREA, the Organization for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa in 1980. Hans was involved intensively in projects in India and China.

Before his retirement in 2005 he worked at the Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, as Rector and as Professor of Economics of Sustainable Development, and at the VU University, Amsterdam, as Professor of Environmental Economics and as a Director of the Institute for Environmental Studies. He also was associated with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, was a Member of the UN Committee on Development Policy, and had Honorary Professorships at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and at Nanjing Agricultural University.

Opschoor was an active member of the Committee for Development Cooperation of the Advisory Council for International Affairs in the Netherlands, and a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences.