The Council comprises up to twelve members, representing the natural and the social sciences in equal measure. The members are appointed for a four-year-term by the responsible ministries (Ministry for Education and Research, BMBF, and the Ministry for Environment, Nature Protection and Nuclear Safety, BMU) on the basis of a cabinet decision. Members may be reappointed. 
The Council's first term of office was from 1 June 1992 to 30 June 1996 (the second term of office from 1. June 1996 to 31. October 2000). Prof. Dr. Graßl was elected Chair of the first term, but left the Council when he was appointed Director of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) in 1994. Prof. Dr. Zimmermann was elected as new Chair, and Prof. Dr. Schellnhuber was elected Vice Chair.

Prof. Dr. Friedrich O. Beese
Agronomist: Director of the Institute for Soil Science and Forest Nutrition, University of Göttingen

Prof. Dr. Hartmut Graßl (Chair, left the Council in 1994) 
Meteorologist: Director of the World Climate Research Center

Prof. Dr. Gotthilf Hempel
Fishery Biologist: Director of the Center for Marine Tropical Ecology at the University of Bremen

Prof. Dr. Paul Klemmer
Economist: President of the Rhine-Westphalia Institute for Economic Research

Prof. Dr. Lenelis Kruse-Graumann
Psychologist: Specialist in Ecological Psychology at the Universits of Hagen

Prof. Dr. Karin Labitzke
Meteorologist: Institute for Meteorology at the Free University of Berlin

Prof. Dr. Heidrun Mühle
Agronomist: Head of the Department of Agricultural Lands at the Environmental Research Center Leipzig-Halle

Prof. Dr. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber (Vice Chair since 1994)
Physicist: Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research

Prof. Dr. Udo Ernst Simonis
Economist: Department of Technology - Work - Environment at the Science Centre Berlin

Prof. Dr. Hans-Willi Thoenes
Technologist: Rhenish-Westphalian Technical Control Board, Essen

Prof. Dr. Paul Velsinger
Economist: Head of the Department of Regional Economics at the University of Dortmund

Prof. Dr. Horst Zimmermann (Chair since 1994) 
Economist: Department of Public Finance at the Universiyt of Marburg