Sevil Acar’s primary research interests lie in environmental and natural resource economics, with a particular focus on climate change, natural capital accounting, sustainable development, fossil fuel subsidies, and the resource curse.

Acar has served as a lead author of both the Europe and Central Asia Regional Assessment Report and the Transformative Change Assessment undertaken by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). 

Her articles have appeared in a range of international journals, including Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Ecological Economics, International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, Ecological Indicators, Energy Policy, and Journal of Environment & Development. 

She has also contributed as an author and editor to three books: The Curse of Natural Resources: A Developmental Analysis in a Comparative Context, Macroeconomics of Climate Change in a Dualistic Economy, and Handbook of Green Economics.