The Early Days

Twenty years ago, Climate Strategies was born from a simple idea: bringing climate researchers together and sharing their work with policymakers to influence decision-making and support Europe in advancing ambitious climate action.

Today, that idea has helped build up a global network and solidified our organisation’s position as a thought leader and a force for policy change.

It all started in November 2000, when the world’s most important international climate change conference, the 6th Conference of the Parties (COP6), was held in The Hague.

At the time, similarly to now, the world was facing a lot of uncertainties. With the Kyoto Protocol in its early stages of implementation, governments were struggling to translate international commitments into national strategies. The United States didn’t ratify the treaty, causing commotion in the international community but also creating an opportunity to find other ways to adapt to, challenges and cooperate on local and global solutions 

COP6 furthermore showed a need for coordination among European countries to understand the scientific aspects of climate change and incorporate them into decision-making. This need and gap between research and policy was identified by six policy-oriented researchers present at the conference, including Michael Grubb – one of Climate Strategies’ founders and longest-standing Members. This is how Climate Strategies’ journey began.

During a chat with Michael earlier this summer, we gained insights into the idea behind Climate Strategies and its evolution into the organisation that it is today.

“At first, we were a small team of six people, just pursuing a concept, which evolved rapidly. Our nascent collaboration was immediately faced with the question of how the European Community (as then was) could and should respond to the US announcement that it would not participate with the Kyoto Protocol – which had been negotiated (and indeed, substantially designed by) the previous US Administration”.  Michael noted.

From the small group of academics, Climate Strategies grew with more projects in its portfolio and expanded not only its Member network, but also its secretariat, now with 13 team members on board across the Netherlands and the UK.

The Why

Although based mainly in academia, Climate Strategies was never conceived like a disciplinary association, with thousands of members. Conducting engaged policy research is complex – even more so, internationally.  The emphasis was on invited Members with demonstrated experience of leading international collaborative research projects.   

Michael recalls the main reasoning for the creation of Climate Strategies:

“We had a debate about the fact that there was already a lot of climate policy work taking place and governments were talking about policy instruments, but we felt there wasn’t nearly enough analysis of the strategy for climate policy and action. We were talking about a deeper level of strategy towards handling the incredibly difficult problem of global coordination, collaboration and so forth. Deliberately we put the emphasis upon strategies, plural, because the organisation was never going to say there’s one single answer. We know there are multiple lines of research and inquiry that lead to a slightly different way of trying to handle complex problems like the climate crisis.”

In 2005 the group of academics, now presented as the Climate Strategies network, established an organisational structure and Michael agreed to be Chair. Michael set two main goals: to give the organisation an independent legal foundation, and to find a priority topic substantial enough to raise funding and profile. This first cause and larger endeavour ended up being the recently launched EU Emissions Trading System, which aimed to create a market-based solution to reduce EU’s greenhouse gas emissions and help meet its commitments under the Kyoto Protocol. Climate Strategies now had about 25 members, and was able to fast-track a highly influential Special Issue of the Climate Policy journal, providing evidence and analysis on the needs and ways to toughen up the EU ETS. 

“Our objective was always to become a trusted organisation focused on sharing evidence-based knowledge. It was intended to be precise enough to be credible to researchers and pragmatic enough for policymakers to listen, and engage with the critiques,” Michael mentioned. “We aspired to offer possible solutions that policymakers could consider, knowing that they had support from researchers across multiple countries.”

Always Ahead of the Curve

Two decades later, that trust has built something remarkable – a global network of more than 140 members spanning academia, research institutions, and organisations around the world. Thanks to the diversity of its Members and skilled secretariat team, Climate Strategies has been recognised for staying ahead of the curve on multiple topics in the climate research and policy world.

At the core of Climate Strategies have always been people wanting to engage and influence impactful climate policy. The organisation identified the need for industrial decarbonisation along with the challenges of implementing policies that impose costs on traded, energy-intensive products, so helping to lay approaches to lay intellectual groundwork for non-discriminatory Carbon Border Adjustments. It advocated early for Just Transitions well before the concept gained global traction. Its research supported Denmark in accelerating its fossil fuel phase-out by 10 years, helped found South Africa’s Just Energy Transition Partnership, and inspired Namibia’s national transition plan. Today, we continue to support climate negotiators at the UNFCCC, shaping how the world understands a fair, effective climate transition.

Staying Afloat in an Uncertain World

As Climate Strategies marks its 20th year, our cause has only grown more urgent, with raising socioeconomic environmental, geopolitical and security challenges, and the rapidly progressing climate crisis. The organisation is adapting to current challenges, and continues to bridge the gap between policymakers and academia. The importance of the initial aim of Climate Strategies has never been clearer.

“Looking back at the past 20 years, we’re proud and excited for what’s to come” Michael says.

We know that our next chapter will demand more ambition, more urgency, and deeper partnerships. Climate policy today faces a new set of challenges but our mission remains clear: advancing science-backed policy through international collaboration between researchers and implementing stakeholders to enable just, inclusive, and effective climate transitions. Our new Pathway to Impact Strategy 2026-2029 continues guiding the organisation towards the achievement of these goals. For example, through our focus on the Global Majority Powered Change, incorporating leadership and knowledge from emerging economies, climate-vulnerable territories and Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities is not only recognised but incorporated in our work. We expanded of our areas of development, incorporating Nature-based Solutions and Agriculture to deliver inclusive and holistic solutions to the climate-biodiversity-food crisis. Climate Strategies is also broadening its collaboration to new actors such as the private sector so that our impact can reach bigger targets and include all important stakeholders.

Looking back over the years, we’re proud and excited for what’s to come. We would also like to extend our gratitude to all our collaborators, network, partners, funders, Members and Secretariat for making it happen.

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Find out more about Michael Grubb and his work which contributed to laying the foundations for Climate Strategies and climate science-policy synergies.