International climate change policy
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I study and write about international and domestic climate change and environmental policy, with a particular focus on the possibility of rapid and large-scale structural economic change and the relationship between economic growth and environmental sustainability.
From 2012-15 I worked on economic research and political strategy to help achieve a new international climate change agreement at the UN climate conference (COP21) in December 2015. I helped to establish and was Senior Adviser to the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate and its New Climate Economy project. I was a lead author of and director of strategy for its report, Better Growth, Better Climate, published in September 2014. The report, which has been widely disseminated and discussed around the world, provided authoritative new evidence on the compatibility of economic growth and development with action on climate change. I directed the second report of the Commission, Seizing the Global Opportunity: Partnerships for Better Growth and a Better Climate, which was published in July 2015, along with eleven policy papers. From 2013-14 I was Senior Adviser on International Climate Change Policy at IDDRI (l'Institut du Développement Durable et des Relations Internationales) in Paris, working with the French Government to support their preparations for COP21, and continued this work in 2015 through the Global Commission. I focused in particular on the 'solutions agenda' of action by businesses, international organisations and non-state actors, working closely with the office of the UN Secretary General on the New York Climate Summit in 2014. I also worked closely with a network of non-government organisations, communications specialists and government on the political preparations for COP21. I subsequently wrote about how this strategy was organised. I was a Visiting Professor at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science from 2010-16. There my principal focus was on low carbon economic development and 'green growth' and on the international political economy of climate change. From 2010-13 I was a consultant adviser to the climate change programme of the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF). I worked mainly on policy and advocacy for the decarbonisation of the European power sector, on European carbon pricing policy, and on the development of climate policy and clean energy investment in Latin America. From 2011-13 I was a member of the Board of the European Climate Foundation (ECF). I was a member of CIFF's Climate Change Advisory Board from 2010-15. In 2011 I worked with the Grantham Research Institute, ECF and IDDRI to bring together economic modelling and policy groups in Europe, China, India and Brazil involved in developing national low carbon growth scenarios, a project subsequently developed by IDDRI and the Earth Institute at Columbia University as 'Pathways to Deep Decarbonization'. In 2010 I worked with Nick Stern on the UN Secretary-General’s High Level Advisory Group on Climate Finance. In 2010-11 I wrote a series of articles on climate change issues for the online journal Inside Story and the Huffington Post. I continue to write occasional opinion and commentary pieces in the Guardian. Background As Special Adviser to Gordon Brown, both at the Treasury and at No 10, I was closely involved in the development of the UK's international climate change strategy from 2005-10. At the Treasury I originated and oversaw the Stern Report on the economics of climate change in 2005-06. I helped to initiate and promote the development of the Clean Energy Investment Framework of the World Bank and regional development banks, and the subsequent creation of the Climate Investment Funds. Internally I helped to create the UK's $1.6bn Environmental Transformation Fund for international development. I initiated and oversaw the Eliasch Review on financing global forests, published in October 2008. I played a principal role in the negotiation of the EU's climate change and energy policy package agreed in December 2008. I represented the prime Minister at the Major Economies Meetings from 2007-09 and helped to direct the development of the UK's Bali and Copenhagen strategies, including the Prime Minister's own interventions, including on climate finance, in the run up to and at Copenhagen. I was closely involved in bilateral negotiations and relations with other countries throughout this period. Under Gordon Brown's co-chairmanship I helped to establish the UN Secretary-General's High Level Advisory Group on Climate Finance in 2010. |
Recent writingSummit of ambitions
Inside Story, 24 June 2023 Where's the climate action? Inside Story, 5 June 2023 Banking on Banga Inside Story, 18 April 2023 Circuses have evolved and so must UN climate summits Climate Home News, 5 February 2023 Agreement by ordeal Inside Story, 22 November 2022 Keynes comes to Sharm el-Sheik Inside Story, 16 November 2022 What exactly is the point of COP27? Inside Story, 4 November 2022 Reflections on COP26: International diplomacy, global justice and the greening of capitalism Political Quarterly, April-June 2022 Glasgow kiss Inside Story 15 November 2021 "System change not climate change!" Inside Story 9 November 2021 Closing the Glasgow gap Inside Story 4 November 2021 The Glasgow paradox Inside Story 27 October 2021 Boris Johnson's high-stakes gamble Inside Story 29 September 2021 Recovering better: a green, equitable and resilient recovery from coronavirus Briefing note for European Climate Foundation 30 March 2020 'Net zero' and the innovation-policy nexus SPERI blog 13 June 2019 High pressure for low emissions: How civil society created the Paris climate agreement Juncture 14 March 2016 (also published by Inside Story 23 March 2016) The Paris Agreement is highly ambitious and very clever Grantham Research Institute blog 18 December 2015 (also as a Green Alliance blog 21 December 2015) Paris is a pragmatic climate deal New Scientist interview 15 December 2015 The Carbon Brief Interview Carbon Brief 19 October 2015 The world's climate pledges are impressive - but still not enough Guardian 16 October 2015 Ensuring new infrastructure is climate-smart New Climate Economy Working Paper October 2015 Reflections on the latest report of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate Grantham Research Institute blog 8 July 2015 Seizing the global opportunity: partnerships for better growth and a better climate [lead author] The second New Climate Economy report July 2015 The prospects for Paris 2015 New Statesman 6 January 2015 Lima deal represents fundamental change in global climate regime Guardian 15 December 2014 (also in Project Syndicate 15 December 2014) Emissions targets are biggest challenge for Lima climate talks Guardian 2 December 2014 Five ways Ban Ki-Moon's summit has changed international climate politics forever Guardian 24 September 2014 New Climate Economy: it's not just another report Responding to Climate Change 16 September 2014 Better Growth, Better Climate [co-lead author] The New Climate Economy report September 2014 The climate change agenda heats up Project Syndicate 7 March 2014 Green growth Chapter in The Handbook of Global Climate and Environment Policy, ed Robert Falkner Wiley 2013 (also published here) Economie verte: mefions-nous des marchands de doute Les Echos 4 January 2013 The Doha climate change talks were a start, but 2015 will be the moment of truth Guardian 10 December 2012 A low carbon future is the one we must all fight for Guardian 2 December 2012 Politics and the planet Political Quarterly Commentary December 2012 (reprinted here) Less pain, more gain: the potential of carbon pricing to reduce Europe's fiscal deficits Grantham Research Institute Policy Paper, London School of Economics November 2012 Green growth: economic theory and political discourse Grantham Research Institute Working Paper, London School of Economics October 2012 The potential role for carbon pricing in reducing European deficits (with Hector Pollitt et al) Global Policy 18 September 2012 What is the state of international climate change talks? Guardian 17 September 2012 Oral evidence given to the House of Commons Energy and Climate Change Select Committee Enquiry on 'The road to UNFCCC COP18 and beyond' 22May 2012 Deadline 2015 Nature 12 January 2012 (reprinted here) Writing 2010-11
What Durban revealed about climate's shifting allegiances
Inside Story 14 December 2011 Hope at last in Durban Guardian 11 December 2011 UN talks see 'delayer countries' throw away the 2C goal Guardian 1 December 2011 Can Durban deliver? Inside Story and Huffington Post 29 November 2011 EU economy - black hole or green growth? Comment on Martin Wolf's Economists' Blog Financial Times 28 October 2011 Tax can be used to tackle climate change Interview in International Tax Review 1 October 2011 Can Germany go green? Inside Story 1 August 2011 Green growth: an idea whose time has come Inside Story 24 June 2011 Leveraging private investment: the role of public sector finance Overseas Development Institute Background Note April 2011 The China factor Inside Story 28 April 2011 Taking stock on climate Inside Story 2 March 2011 Cancun: the glass half full Inside Story and Huffington Post 16 December 2010 Why Cancun gives us hope Guardian 15 December 2010 Cancun climate conference Guardian podcast 10 December 2010 Cancun climate talks: in search of the Holy Grail Guardian 29 November 2010 Copenhagen was not a (complete) failure Inside Story and Huffington Post 4 November 2010 Europe’s radical carbon choice Inside Story and Huffington Post 6 October 2010 Arctic oil: the battle begins Inside Story and Huffington Post 2 September 2010 Is it all over for climate policy in the United States? Inside Story 29 July 2010 |
