After his military service, and being discharged as reserve lieutenant, Prof. Dr. Klaus Töpfer studied economics at the Universities of Mainz, Frankfurt and Munster (Dipl.-Volkswirt) from 1960 to 1964. For the following five years he worked as an assistant of professor Hans-Karl Schneider at the Central Institute for Regional Research and Planning at the University of Munster, and as a teaching assistant at the Economic Academy Hagen and at the University of Bielefeld. In 1968 he finished his PhD in political science. Until 1978 he was head of the department of planning and information at the chancellery of state of Saar as well as a teaching assistant at the University of Administrative Science, Speyer.

Prof. Dr. Klaus Töpfer has been a member of the Christian Democratic Party (CDU) since 1972. He served, amongst others, as Undersecretary of state in the Ministry of Social Affairs, Health and Environment in Rhineland-Palatinate, as Minister for the Environment and Health in Rhineland-Palatinate, as Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Protection and Nuclear Safety and as Federal Minister for Regional Planning, Building and Urban Development, commissioned by the Federal Government for the move of the German government from Bonn to Berlin. From 1998 to 2006 he was Executive director for the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) with residence in Nairobi and Chief executive of the UN Office at Nairobi (UNON). At present he is Senior Professor at Tongji University in Shanghai.