The Task Exposure Indexv2026.Q3
Occupation · SOC 19-3011.01 · Job Zone 5

AI exposure: Environmental Economists

Conduct economic analysis related to environmental protection and use of the natural environment, such as water, air, land, and renewable energy resources. Evaluate and quantify benefits, costs, incentives, and impacts of alternative options using economic principles and statistical techniques.

Reading this score

computed

47.5% of this occupation's weighted task load is exposed, which puts Environmental Economists at the 86th percentile of 923 occupations. The capability is largely there. Its average task scores 3.0 out of 4 on what a current system can produce, and the frictions that hold other jobs in place are comparatively weak here.

What holds the line here is context. Across this occupation's 20 tasks it averages 1.95 out of 3, the highest of the five friction dimensions. In plain terms, the work depends on knowledge the model cannot hold. Much of this job runs on things that were never written down: what this particular organisation does, what happened last week, what the person across the table actually meant. That context is the barrier, and it erodes as systems are given more access.

The most exposed thing this job does is Monitor or analyze market and environmental trends, at 80.0%. The least is Teach courses in environmental economics, at 11.7%. A gap of 68.3% between two parts of the same job is the reason this index publishes at task level. An occupation-wide number would have hidden both.

Within life, physical and social science occupations, this one is more exposed than most. The median across the 60 roles in the group is 35.8%, and only 6 of them score higher than this. Occupational families are not uniform, and the spread inside them is often wider than the gap between them.

What would move this score. Of 20 tasks, 18 are currently banded exposed, 1 assisted and 1 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take cheaper ways to verify output, since the cost of checking is currently doing more to hold this work in place than the cost of producing it. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.

Task by task

20 tasks, O*NET 31.0
TaskExposedAssistedUntouchedImportanceBand
Monitor or analyze market and environmental trends.80.0%20.0%0.0%3.26exposed
Write research proposals and grant applications to obtain private or public funding for environmental and economic studies.73.3%26.7%0.0%3.31exposed
Prepare and deliver presentations to communicate economic and environmental study results, to present policy recommendations, or to raise awareness of environmental consequences.70.0%30.0%0.0%3.89exposed
Interpret indicators to ascertain the overall health of an environment.66.7%33.3%0.0%2.36exposed
Identify and recommend environmentally friendly business practices.58.3%29.2%12.5%2.60exposed
Develop programs or policy recommendations to achieve environmental goals in cost-effective ways.50.0%25.0%25.0%3.89exposed
Develop economic models, forecasts, or scenarios to predict future economic and environmental outcomes.50.0%25.0%25.0%3.85exposed
Perform complex, dynamic, and integrated mathematical modeling of ecological, environmental, or economic systems.50.0%25.0%25.0%3.67exposed
Develop environmental research project plans, including information on budgets, goals, deliverables, timelines, and resource requirements.50.0%25.0%25.0%3.16exposed
Develop programs or policy recommendations to promote sustainability and sustainable development.47.5%27.5%25.0%3.37exposed
Write technical documents or academic articles to communicate study results or economic forecasts.45.0%30.0%25.0%4.48exposed
Conduct research on economic and environmental topics, such as alternative fuel use, public and private land use, soil conservation, air and water pollution control, and endangered species protection.45.0%30.0%25.0%4.41exposed
Demonstrate or promote the economic benefits of sound environmental regulations.45.0%30.0%25.0%3.77exposed
Conduct research to study the relationships among environmental problems and patterns of economic production and consumption.45.0%30.0%25.0%3.70exposed
Write social, legal, or economic impact statements to inform decision makers for natural resource policies, standards, or programs.45.0%30.0%25.0%3.52exposed
Examine the exhaustibility of natural resources or the long-term costs of environmental rehabilitation.45.0%30.0%25.0%3.30exposed
Assess the costs and benefits of various activities, policies, or regulations that affect the environment or natural resource stocks.40.0%35.0%25.0%3.93exposed
Develop systems for collecting, analyzing, and interpreting environmental and economic data.30.0%20.0%50.0%3.35exposed
Collect and analyze data to compare the environmental implications of economic policy or practice alternatives.25.0%25.0%50.0%4.22assisted
Teach courses in environmental economics.11.7%13.3%75.0%3.50untouched

Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean.

Where the score comes from

judged

Every task is scored through the standardised work activities it maps to. These are this occupation’s averages on the six rubric dimensions. Capability is what AI can do; the other five are what stands in the way.

DimensionMeanScale
Capability3.020-4
Embodiment0.380-3
Presence0.350-3
Accountability1.050-3
Context1.950-3
Verification cost1.850-3

What this means in practice

Where most of a role's weighted task load is exposed, the work that survives is usually the part of the job nobody wrote into the job description: deciding what should be produced rather than producing it, and being answerable for the result. The tasks lowest on this page are a better guide to where to spend your time than any general advice about the future of work.

Occupations either side of this one

The four closest scores in the same occupational family, then the four closest anywhere in the index.

Read this carefully. Exposure is not displacement. A high score means current AI systems can produce this work, not that anyone will stop paying a person to do it. Adoption depends on economics, regulation and inertia that this index deliberately does not model. How the score is built.