Our History | Climate Strategies

In its rapid development since 2006, Climate Strategies has had a significant impact on the development of international policy responses to climate change.

In 2017, we launched our new European Commission, Horizon2020 project ‘COP21 RIPPLES‘, analysing pathways and policies for low-emissions societies under the Paris Agreement regime. Our first stakeholder workshop, outlining the research narratives, was held in London in June 2017. For our Coal Transitions project, we launched national case studies and a synthesis report highlighting the key outcomes from historical transitions within the coal sector. Later in the year, we also published a report on how to strengthen these transitions in the face of increased climate ambition. Within our Trade and Climate project, launched two major reports, analysing the implications of fossil fuel subsidies for climate and the options for border carbon adjustments. The findings of both reports were discussed in detail with stakeholders at two events in Geneva, and two events at the COP23 in Bonn.

In 2016, launched two research projects within key agenda-setting climate policy themes: understanding Just Transition within the coal sector and how to better connect climate and trade policy. We also convened our 3rd edition of the Global Climate Policy Conference (GCPC) in Dar es Salaam, co-hosted with the Uongozi Institute and Konrad Adenauer Foundation. We concluded two of our FP7 projects POLIMP and Carbon-CAP, publishing final reports in April and December 2016. We also made advancements in our project on peace and reconciliation processes within climate negotiations, concluding with a roundtable discussion and publishing a set of policy briefs at the COP22 in Marrakesh, in November 2016. Also, for the World Group’s Networked ‘Carbon Markets initiative‘, we published a report on carbon market clubs under the new Paris Agreement regime.

In 2015, a pivotal year for climate change, we convened the 2^nd Global Climate Policy Conference in New Delhi, hosted in collaboration with the Stanley Foundation. This focused on a variety of issues, including that of ‘climate clubs’. We later organised a series of workshops with high level stakeholders from government, private sector and civil society to transform these ideas into concrete policy proposals. Climate Strategies also embarked in a new, innovative project on the use of ‘Peace & Reconciliation’ tools to overcome conflicts in international climate change negotiations. We focused on the ‘Energy Union’ debate, convening two large conferences in Berlin and London and helping to prepare a special issue of the Climate Policy Journal on this (to be issued in May 2016). At the landmark COP21 in Paris, we hosted 5 events on: climate clubs and carbon pricing, consumption–based accounting, INDCs and national planning in the EU, and mitigation policy in China.

In 2014 Climate Strategies published major reports on low carbon investments in the cement sector and the steel sector, as well as on the analysis and recommendations for the EU 2030 Climate and Energy package, and Energy Security. We also embarked in a new initiative with the objective of identifying the key issues blocking a global climate deal in the UNFCCC process. At our Global Climate Policy Conference, researchers and policy makers discussed how to unblock the negotiation process. A new project called Global Research -Policy Interface Climate 2015 dug deeper into climate negotiations ahead of of COP21 in Paris.

In 2013 Climate Strategies joined for the first time the consortium of two FP7 projects: Carbon-CAP and POLIMP. We have since been engaging stakeholders with the project and providing rigorous scientific advice and expertise through our members. Climate Strategies also launched the Carbon-Control Post 2020 in Energy Intensive Industries and the EU 2030 Climate and Energy Package projects.

In 2012, we worked on Strengthening the EU ETS in the current debt and economic uncertainty. Our network has been involved in a number of studies: Climate Technology and Development project translating the latest academic insights to policy, exploring national and international instruments for advancing technology, and an Aviation & Maritime project.

In 2011, our research focused on the ‘Institutional Framework for the Global Carbon Market and finance for mitigation and adaptation: ‘Governance of Climate Change Funding from International Maritime Transport‘ and ‘Mobilising Private Finance for Low-Carbon Development’. Furthermore a study on ‘Living Standards and Economic Performance with Ambitious Climate Action’ was undertaken.

In 2010, the post-Copenhagen landscape had forced governments to re-evaluate international and domestic policies. Climate Strategies saw this as an opportunity to inject fresh ideas and thinking. Our work programme included: a broad-based project on ‘Competitiveness and Leakage’ issues; a major project on ‘Sectoral Approaches’; and on ‘Climate Innovation Centres’. The ‘Carbon Pricing for Low-Carbon Investment’ project provided Response to the UK HM Treasury and HM Revenue and Customs Consultation on Carbon Price Floor debate. We also launched our biggest pan-European landmark study, ‘Examining the Case for the EU to Set More Ambitious 2020 Emissions Reductions Targets’.

In 2009, our growing relevance to policy makers was proven through increased international government funding. Highlights were our reports on: ‘International Support for Domestic Action’; the synthesis of our European-based research into the widely-publicised report for the US policy-making constituency ‘Climate Policy and Industrial Competitiveness: Ten insights from Europe on the EU Emissions Trading System’, published by the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

In 2008, our work on allocation issues in the EU ETS provided crucial input to the EC decisions on Phase II allocation. Our long-standing engagement on this subject generated wide press coverage of our report on ‘The Role of Auctions for Emissions Trading’ of emissions allowances in October 2008, the day before the EU Parliamentary Committee voted in support of the EU post-2012 package.

Members
Board
Secretariat

Emilie Alberola
Head of Climate Policy and Market Mechanisms, Eco-Act

Ken Alex
Director, Project Climate, Center for Law, Energy, & Environment, University of California, Berkeley

Annela Anger-Kraavi
Senior Research Associate, University of Cambridge; Chief Executive, Cambridge Trust for New Thinking in Economics

Harro van Asselt
Senior Research Fellow, Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI)

Julian Barquin
Regulatory Affairs, Endesa

John Barrett
Professor of Energy and Climate Policy, University of Leeds

Regina Betz
Joint Director, Centre for Energy and Environmental Markets (CEEM), University of New South Wales

Kornelis Blok
Professor of Energy Systems Analysis, Delft University of Technology

Simone Borg
Head, Department of Environmental Law and Resources Law, University of Malta

Maurits Blanson Henkemans
Ex-Senior Policy Officer, Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs

Thomas Brewer
Senior Fellow, International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD)

Maciej Bukowski
President and Head of Research, Economics and Economic Policy, WiseEuropa

Rob Byrne
Lecturer, Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU), University of Sussex

Qimin Chai
Director, International Cooperation Department in National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation (NCSC)

Olga Chepelianskaia
Founder and Principal Consultant, UNICITI

Christa Clapp
Senior Adviser, Climate Finance, Center for Climate and Environmental Research (CICERO)

Michel Colombier
Scientific Director, Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI)

Heleen de Coninck
Professor of Socio-Technical Innovation and Climate Change, Eindhoven University of Technology; Associate Professor, Radboud University

Esteve Corbera
Senior Researcher, Institute of Environmental Sciences and Technology (ICTA), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Kasturi Das
Professor of Economics, Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad, Delhi NCR

Joanna Depledge
Editor, Climate Policy Journal

Nives Dolšak
Associate Professor, University of Washington

Thomas Downing
President and Chief Executive Officer Global Climate Adaptation Partnership, Oxford, UK

Susanne Droege
Senior Fellow, Global Issues Research Division, German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP)

Navroz Dubash
Senior Fellow, Centre for Research Policy (CRP)

Robyn Eckersley
Professor, Political Science, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne

Paul Ekins
OBE and Director, Institute for Sustainable Resources, University College London (UCL)

Jasper Faber
Director of Aviation and Maritime, CE Delft

Ying Fan
Professor and Dean, School of Economics and Management, Beihang University

Samuel Fankhauser
Co-Director, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, London School of Economics (LSE)

Dora Fazekas
Managing Director, Hungary, Cambridge Econometrics

Navraj Singh Ghaleigh
Chair of the Climate Strategies Board; Senior Lecturer, Climate Law and Director, LLM in Law and Chinese, University of Edinburgh

Michael Grubb
Professor, Institute of Sustainable Resources, University College London (UCL)

Emmanuel Guérrin
Executive Director, European Climate Foundation (ECF)

Aarti Gupta
Associate Professor, Wageningen University

Joyeeta Gupta
Professor, Institute for Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam

Jean-Charles Hourcade
Research Director Emeritus, The National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS)

Joanna House
Reader, University of Bristol

Stanley Ijeoma
Enviropreneur/CEO, Schrodinger Greentech Ltd.

Roland Ismer
Chair for Public Law and Tax Law, University of Erlangen

Carlo Jaeger
Co-Founder/Chairman, Global Climate Forum

Ingrid Sidenvall Jegou
Project Director, Global Maritime Forum

Frank Jotzo
Associate Professor, Australian National University (ANU)

Péter Kaderják
Director, Regional Centre for Energy Policy Research (REKK)

Sylvia Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen
Assistant Professor, Wageningen University

Jiang Kejun
Senior Researcher, Energy Research Institute

Richard Klein
Senior Research Fellow, Stockholm Environment Institute, Sweden

Sonja Klinsky
Assistant Professor, School of Sustainability, Arizona State University

Alexey Kokorin
Director, WWF Russia

Anna Korppoo
Senior Research Fellow, Fridtjof Nansen Institute (FNI)

Tom Kram
Fellow, PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency

Tim Lancaster
Vice Chair of the Board of Climate Strategies; Project Director, Arcus Global

Deborah Lawrence
Professor, University of Virginia

Richard Lorch
Editor-in-Chief, Buildings & Cities (B&C) journal

Antoine Mandel
Professor, Panthéon-Sorbonne University

Duan Maosheng
Professor and Director, China Carbon Market Center (CCMC)

Ritu Mathur
Professor, TERI University; Director, TERI Energy and Resources Institute

Felix Matthes
Researcher Coordinator, Energy and Climate Policy, Öko-Institut

Michael Mehling
Executive Director, Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Axel Michaelowa
Head of Research, International Climate Policy, University of Zürich

Emi Mizuno
Clean energy technology expert / Editor for IPCC AR6 WGIII

Arild Moe
Senior Research Fellow, Fridtjof Nansen Institute (FNI)

Massimiliano Montini
Associate Professor, European Union Law, University of Siena

Chipo Mukonza
Founder and Managing Director, RC Global Research Training and Consultancy; Lecturer, Tshwane University of Technology

Benito Müller
Managing Director, Oxford Climate Policy

Bernard Namanya
Partner, BNB Advocates

Karsten Neuhoff
Head of the Department, Climate Policy, DIW Berlin

Peter Newell
Professor, International Relations, University of Sussex

Sebastian Oberthür
Academic Director, IES-VUB

Chuks Okereke
Professor, University of Reading

Friederike Otto
Deputy Director, Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford

Jiahua Pan
Director, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS)

Dian Phylipsen
Director, SQ Consult

Marianna Poberezhskaya
Lecturer, Nottingham Trent University

Feng Qiao
Program Director, Guangdong Harmony Foundation; Research Fellow, Jinan University

Joyashree Roy
Professor and Head, Department of Economics, Jadavpur University

J. Timmons Roberts
Ittleson Professor, Environmental Studies and Sociology, Brown University

Ambuj Sagar
Professor, Policy Studies, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)

Georgy Safonov
Director, Centre for Environmental and Natural Resource Economics, HSE University

María José Sanz Sánchez
Scientific Director, Basque Centre of Climate Change (BC3)

Stefan Schleicher
Professor, Wegener Center on Climate and Global Change, University of Graz

Graham Sinden
Senior Research Associate, Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford

Thomas Sterner
Professor, Environmental Economics, University of Gothenburg

Charlotte Streck
Director, Climate Focus

Kacper Szulecki
Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Oslo

Halldór Thorgeirsson

Diana Urge-Vorsatz
Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy, Central European Univeristy (CEU)

Kiriakos Vlahos
Associate Professor, Athens Laboratory of Business Administration (ALBA)

Andreas Tuerk
Senior Researcher, Joanneum Research / Wegener Center for Climate and Global Change, University of Graz

Yao Wang
Director General, International Institute of Green Finance

Murray Ward
Consultant, Global Climate Change Consultancy (GtripleC)

Peter Wooders
Group Director - Energy, International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)

Farhana Yamin
Founder and CEO,Track 0

Xiliang Zhang
Professor and Director, Institute of Energy, Environment, and Economy, Tsinghua University

Yongsheng Zhang
Vice-Director-General, Department of Development Strategy and Regional Economy, DRC