International Conference on Fossil Fuel Supply and Climate Policy

 
Frank Jotzo
Director of Centre for Climate Economics and Policy, Research Director, and Professor at School of Public Policy, Australian National University
Frank Jotzo is Professor at the ANU Crawford School of Public Policy, where he directs the Centre for Climate Economics and Policy. He is also Crawford School’s Research Director. As an environmental economist, his research focuses on policy relevant aspects of climate change, energy, and broader issues of environment, development and economic reform. Frank Jotzo is joint editor-in-chief of the journal Climate Policy and was a Lead Author of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 5th Assessment Report. He has been involved in a number of policy research and advisory exercises, including as senior advisor to Australia’s Garnaut Climate Change Review, advisor to Indonesia‘s Minister of Finance, and to the World Bank. He is co-director of the Energy Transition Hub, an Australian-German research initiative. He leads a collaborative research program on market mechanisms for China’s climate and energy policy, supported by the Australian government. He leads the Australian component of the international Coal Transitions project.
 
Sivan Kartha
Senior Scientist, Stockholm Environment Institute, U.S. Center
Sivan Kartha’s research and publications for the past 20 years have focused on technological options and policy strategies for addressing climate change, concentrating most recently on equity and efficiency in the design of an international climate regime. His current work deals primarily with the economic, political and ethical dimensions of equitably sharing the effort of an ambitious global response to climate change. This work examines the climate crisis in the context of the equally urgent development crisis confronting the world’s poor majority. He has advised and collaborated with diverse organizations, including the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), various United Nations and World Bank programmes, numerous government policy-making bodies and agencies, foundations, and civil society organizations throughout the developing and industrialized world. He served as a Coordinating Lead Author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report, co-leading the chapter on equity and sustainable development.
 
Berit Kristoffersen
Associate Professor, UiT the Arctic University of Norway
Berit Kristoffersen is a political geographer and associate professor at UiT - the Arctic university of Norway, working on energy futures, environmental governance, climate change and ocean management. She is currently doing research on renewable energy in Northern Norway, global initiatives for supply-side climate policy and political practices of ocean policy in dynamic Arctic ecologies. Her post-doc (2014-2016) focused on resource and tourism practices and her PhD (2014) and master (2007) thesis' on the territorial, political and representational geographies of 'opening up' the Norwegian Arctic for oil and gas activities, themes that are still ongoing research subjects.
 
Lucas Kruitwagen
Data Lead, Sustainable Finance Programme, Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford
Lucas Kruitwagen is the Data Lead of the Sustainable Finance Programme, Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford, where he leads the development of decision support tools to help industry and policy stakeholders understand and act upon environmental risks. He is also studying for a DPhil in Geography and the Environment under the supervision of Professor Cameron Hepburn and Ben Caldecott. His DPhil research examines how technology is extending the reach of governance of environment-related risks. Lucas maintains Visiting Scholar affiliations with both Imperial College London and Stanford University, where he researches, respectively, decision-making under risk and uncertainty and the collaborative production of financial information. He holds an MSc (with distinction) in Sustainable Energy Futures from Imperial College London, and a BEng from McGill University, Montreal, where he was a Loran Scholar.
 
Glada Lahn
Senior Research Fellow, Energy, Environment and Resources, Chatham House
Glada Lahn is a Senior Research Fellow in the Energy, Environment and Resources (EER) Department at Chatham House. Since joining Chatham House in 2004, Glada’s research areas have included petroleum sector governance, Asian NOC investment, Arctic oil and gas risks, sustainable transitions in oil and gas-exporting economies, and transboundary water relations in the Middle East and Asia. Her work on energy use and demand-side management in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries has influenced debate and practice in the region and in 2015 she led the first ever global assessment of energy use in displacement contexts as part of the Moving Energy Initiative which has become a resource informing change humanitarian sector. Glada studied Arabic, International relations and Near and Middle Eastern Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies with a year spent at the University of Damascus, Syria.
 
Michael Lazarus
Senior Scientist, U.S. Center Director, and Co-Leader of SEI Initiative on Fossil Fuels and Climate Change
For over 25 years, Michael Lazarus has worked at the intersection of energy and climate policy. He advises, publishes, and presents widely on climate policy, carbon markets and energy planning. He has worked in over 30 countries, with support from government agencies, development banks, foundations, utilities and non-profit groups. Among other duties, he has served as advisor to the Partnership for Market Readiness and the Western Climate Initiative, as member of the Methodology Panel of the Clean Development Mechanism, and on numerous non-profits boards. He is adjunct faculty at the Evans School of Public Administration at University of Washington, where he teaches energy and climate policy. He holds an MSc in Energy and Resources from the University of California, Berkeley.
 
Alex Lenferna
PhD Candidate, Department of Philosophy, University of Washington
Alex Lenferna is a Fulbright Scholar and Ph.C. in the University of Washington Philosophy Department. He is also an Endeavour Research Fellow at the University of New South Wales’ Practical Justice Initiative Climate Justice Research Stream. His broad research focus is climate ethics. His PhD dissertation makes a moral case for a rapid and just transition away from fossil fuels, with a significant focus on the ethical questions surrounding supply side climate policy. Of relevance to the conference, he has published a journal article on the challenges of equitably phasing out fossil fuel production, a book chapter on the moral case for fossil fuel divestment, and two book chapters analysing the fossil fuel divestment movement. Alex holds two master’s Degrees in philosophy from Rhodes University and the University of Washington. He also holds graduate certificates in environmental studies and climate science from the Universities of Kansas and Washington respectively. In climate justice advocacy, Alex has recently served as a research consultant with 350.org (international), a fellow with Carbon Washington, a leader on a number divestment campaigns, and worked on labor and climate issues. He is a first generation South African whose family hails from the small island nation of Mauritius.
 
Naomi Luhde-Thompson
Researcher, Law College, Birmingham University
Until September 2017, Naomi was Senior Planner at Friends of the Earth, where she worked for over ten years on land use planning for sustainable development campaigns with local communities, relevant planning legislation and policy development in England and Wales, and promoting implementation of the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters. Naomi is a specialist in planning and energy matters, including renewable energy and fossil fuels. Prior to Friends of the Earth, she worked on local government sustainable development policy at ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability in Freiburg, Germany; The National Trust on policy and communications; and in a Teacher’s College as a teacher trainer in China with VSO. Her current voluntary roles include Director of the Woodland Skills Centre, an outdoor learning environment centre, Community Councillor and School Governor.
 
David Manley
Senior Economic Analyst, Natural Resource Governance Institute
David Manley is Senior Economic Analyst at the Natural Resource Governance Institute. David has worked on policy reforms to ensure countries get sustained value from their oil, gas and minerals—through taxation, state companies and other channels. He helped produce the Natural Resource Charter, the Resource Governance Index, and an Executive Course at Oxford University – three tools that together enable government officials and oversight actors make better, more holistic policy decisions. His latest research is on the long-term sustainability of resource-rich societies and the implications of the energy transition. Prior to NRGI, David was an Overseas Development Institute Fellow and senior economist in the Zambia Revenue Authority focused on mining tax policy and administration. He also worked for Oxford Economic Research Associates on financial regulation and utility finance. David holds an M.Sc degree in economics from the London School of Economics.
 
Valérie Marcel
Associate Fellow, Energy, Environment and Resources, Chatham House
Valérie Marcel is an Associate Fellow at Chatham House and project lead for the New Producers Group, a South-South knowledge-sharing network of 31 emerging oil and gas producer countries. She is an established expert on national oil companies, petroleum-sector governance and emerging strategic issues shaping the energy sector. She is the author of Oil Titans: National Oil Companies in the Middle East (Chatham House/Brookings, 2006). Recent publications include "The Cost of An Emerging National Oil Company", the most read Chatham House paper in 2016, with 41,000 downloads. She advises governments in sub-Saharan Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean, South America and the Caribbean on petroleum sector policy and governance. Valerie is passionate about designing projects in which producer countries drive the agenda and delivery. She is a member of Columbia University’s Executive Session on the Politics of Extractives. She was a member of KPMG’s advisory team for energy-sector governance and the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Future of Oil and Gas. She previously led energy research at Chatham House and taught international relations at the Institut d’études politiques (Sciences Po), Paris, and at Cairo University.
 
Sophie Marjanac
Lawyer (Australian qualified), ClientEarth
Sophie Marjanac has been part of ClientEarth's climate litigation programme since 2015. At ClientEarth she works on novel climate litigation strategies around the world with a particular focus on the risks of climate change to private actors and the intersection of environmental and corporate law. Previously she was a senior environmental lawyer at Australia's largest law firm. She has a LLB from the University of New South Wales with first class honours.

 
Dominic Martin
Vice President, Governmental and Regulatory Affairs, Marketing and Trading, Equinor UK
Dominic Martin joined Equinor (formerly Statoil) in 2014. He took over responsibility for global governmental and regulatory affairs for the mid- and downstream business in April 20i8. Before that he worked in Corporate Strategy & Business Development and on Political and Public Affairs. Before joining Statoil/Equinor, Dominic worked for the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office for 27 years, where he served in India, Argentina, the United States as Ambassador to the OECD in Paris. He was Director for Economic Diplomacy from 2011-13 and Director for the UK G8 Presidency in 2013.
 
Roman Mendelevitch
Post Doc, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Roman Mendelevitch is a leading international expert on the economics of the international steam coal market, focusing on the distributional implications of supply-side climate policies. He is a Post-Doc in the Resource Economics Group at HU Berlin. Before joining the HU Berlin, he has worked as research associate at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin) and at the Workgroup for Infrastructure policy (WIP) at Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin). He holds a PhD (summa cum laude) in Economics from TU Berlin and the DIW Berlin Graduate Center and a Dipl.-Ing. in industrial engineering and management from TU Berlin and University of Maryland, USA. He has worked in several research projects on the economics of climate change combining technological and economic domains. His research deals with mid- and long-term strategies of fossil fuel exporters and consumers. He has been developing numerical models to analyse international coal markets, CCTS infrastructure, and electricity markets with a high share of coal in the energy mix. He has a focus on alternative climate policies and on the interface of climate change economics and political economy. He is a guest lecturer at TU Berlin and managing editor of the Journal Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy (EEEP).
 
Paul Mollet
Research Fellow, Policy and Decision Science, KAPSARC (King Abdullah Petroleum Studies And Research Center)
Paul Mollet is a Research Fellow at the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center, an independent think tank in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He has over 25 years of experience as an analyst covering international oil and energy markets. At KAPSARC, he works on the role of oil in the energy transition. He opened the first GCC bureau for the oil price reporting agency Platts in Dubai in 1989 and later launched the first regional office for Argus Media. He has attended numerous OPEC meetings and written extensively about the oil industry in industry publications such as Platts Oilgram News, Argus Global Markets, and the Petroleum Economist.
 
Jeremy Moss
Professor of Political Philosophy, University of New South Wales
Professor Moss's main research interests are in political philosophy and applied philosophy. Current research interests include projects on: climate justice, the ethics of renewable energy as well as the ethical issues associated with climate transitions. He is co-director of the Practical Justice Initiative and leads the Climate Justice Research program at UNSW as part of the Practical Justice Initiative (PJI). Moss has published several books including: Reassessing Egalitarianism, Climate Change and Social Justice, and Climate Change and Justice (Cambridge University Press). He is the recipient of the Eureka Prize for Ethics, the Australasia Association of Philosophy Media Prize and several Australian Research Council Grants including most recently, Ethics, Responsibility and the Carbon Budget, with researchers from Adelaide, ANU and Oxford. He chaired the UNESCO working group on Climate Ethics and Energy Security, and has been a visitor at Oxford and McGill universities. Recent publications include: 'The Morality of Divestment', Law and Policy, July 2017; 'Mining and Morality', Australian Journal of Political Science, Vol 51 No 3, 2016; 'Going It Alone: Cities and States for Climate Action', Ethics, Policy and Environment', 12/2/18.
 
Kathy Mulvey
Accountability Campaign Director, Climate & Energy Program, Union of Concerned Scientists
Kathy leads strategic development of UCS’s climate corporate accountability campaign, guides engagement with corporate targets, builds national and international coalitions, and mobilizes experts and supporters. She is the lead author of publications including "The Climate Deception Dossiers" and "The Climate Accountability Scorecard". Kathy has designed and led corporate accountability initiatives, programs, and campaigns since 1989. Prior to joining UCS, Kathy was the executive director of the EIRIS Conflict Risk Network of institutional investors. She worked with public pension funds, university endowments and other stakeholders calling on companies to support peace and stability in areas affected by genocide and mass atrocities. Before that, Kathy worked with Corporate Accountability International for two decades, serving as both executive director and international policy director.
 
Sonny Mumbunan
Researcher, Research Center for Climate Change, University of Indonesia, and Senior Economist and Research Associate, World Resources Institute
A researcher at the University of Indonesia’s Research Center for Climate Change and a lead economist at the World Resources Institute (WRI) Indonesiam, Sonny’s research interest is related to environmental economics in areas of land use and energy. At the Research Center for Climate Change, Sonny currently leads research on public finance for forest conservation, and on preferences for watershed-based local climate change adaptation. At WRI Indonesia, Sonny leads the country work for the New Climate Economy (NCE) on investment analysis for the transition to low carbon development in Indonesia which includes land-based sectors of forestry, agriculture, and peat land, and in the energy sector. Furthermore, Sonny assisted in building the stranded asset component for the Indonesia 2050 Pathway Calculator, a tool to show sectoral emissions and development trajectories. In the public policy arena, past assignments included serving as a policy advisor to the President of the Republic of Indonesia’s Delivery Unit for Development Monitoring and Oversight (UKP4) on green economy and sustainable development, and co-author of Indonesia's First Fiscal Framework for Climate Change Mitigation published by the Ministry of Finance. Sonny has a PhD in economics (Dr.rer.pol) from the University of Leipzig, Germany.
 
Greg Muttitt
Research Director, Oil Change International
Greg Muttitt has worked on fossil fuels and climate change since 1997. He is Research Director at Oil Change International, and works mainly in the Energy Futures & Transitions program – aiming to translate climate science into limits to the fossil fuel industry. Prior to OCI, he was climate team leader at Greenpeace International, and climate campaign manager at Greenpeace India. His book Fuel on the Fire – Oil and Politics in Occupied Iraq was published by Random House in 2011. He previously worked in leadership roles at War on Want, Platform and Corporate Watch. He studied Physics and Philosophy at the University of Oxford. He lives in London.
 
Pao-Yu Oei
Research Group Leader, TU Berlin, CoalExit Group
Pao-Yu Oei currently works at the Technische Universität Berlin and is leading a subgroup on the transition from fossil fuels towards renewable energy sources. His expertise lies in analyzing the effects of the decarbonization of the electricity sector with a focus on the future for coal. He has been involved in numerous projects on the German coal phase-out, and part of German Energy Policy partnership deligations. He holds a Dipl. Ing. as industrial engineer and a Ph.D. in Economics from TU Berlin and spent research visits at the University of Maryland and the International Institute of Applied System Analysis (IIASA). He is a guest researcher at DIW Berlin and managing editor of the Journal Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy (EEEP).
 
Patricia Pedra
MSc Student, Coppe - Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
Patricia Pedra is an MS student at the Energy/Environmental Planning Program at COPPE – Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). She has previously worked for fifteen years in the oil industry in Brazil and USA. During this time, she worked with different fiscal systems all over the world supporting investment decisions with economic analysis, not only for hydrocarbon production but also for CO2 sequestration and storage opportunities in USA. She holds an Economics and Law degree from UFRJ and UNI-RIO, respectively in Brazil and a Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Energy, Environment and Natural Resources from the University of Houston. She currently lives in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with her husband and two children.
 
Georgia Piggot
Staff Scientist, Stockholm Environment Institute
Georgia Piggot's research focuses on the social and institutional dimensions of climate mitigation. Her current work examines on two facets of climate policy: aligning fossil fuel supply with agreed climate goals, and low-carbon transitions at city scale. She is particularly interested in the role citizens play in pushing for transformative policy change. Her research on the influence of social movements on climate change discourse and policy has been published in Climate Policy and Nature Climate Change. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of British Columbia.
 
Steve Pye
Principal Research Fellow, UCL Energy Institute, University College London
Steve Pye’s research focuses on the use of energy models to inform the policy debate around energy and climate change, in relation to technology pathways, including the use of fossil fuels, and wider societal and environmental issues. He has long been engaged, since 2005, in assessing different low carbon energy systems in the UK, and supporting UK strategy formulation. In recent years, he has been researching how modelling can better account for uncertainty in order to improve the robustness of strategic decisions for the longer term, to move towards net-zero emission systems. He was a co-author on the recently published Chatham House report ‘Carbon Risk and Resilience: How Energy Transition is Changing the Prospects for Countries with Fossil Fuels’, focusing on critical uncertainties facing new fossil producers, and equity considerations relating to fossil fuel production.
 
Ryan Rafaty
Associate Fellow, Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School
Ryan Rafaty is a political scientist by training, with an interest in the comparative political economy (and performance) of climate change mitigation policies. Ryan is an Associate Fellow at the Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, and at the Centre for Environment, Energy, and Natural Resource Governance at University of Cambridge. He is currently a consultant at the World Bank, providing advisory support for the Climate Action Peer Exchange (CAPE) initiative for finance ministries. Ryan has previously held climate policy research positions at numerous organizations, including the Climate Leadership Council, University College London, and the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. He received his PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2016.
 
Oliver Sartor
Research Fellow, IDDRI
Oliver Sartor has been a senior researcher at IDDRI since 2013. His main areas of expertise are European climate and energy policy, climate and energy policy governance, coal transitions, and decarbonisation policy for energy-intensive industries. Before joining IDDRI, Oliver Sartor worked for CDC Climat, a subsidiary of the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, and for the Center for Energy and Environment Markets (CEEM) at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. He holds a PhD in economics from Paris 1 University, and Bachelors Degrees in both Arts and Commerce from the University of New South Wales.
 
Cliona Sharkey
Policy Advisor, Trocaire
Cliona Sharkey is a member of the Policy Team in Trócaire, leading Trocaire’s policy and advocacy work on climate change, including Trocaire's fossil fuel divestment campaign since 2016. Trócaire campaigns within the Stop Climate Chaos coalition in Ireland, and together with new groups, such as Not Here Not Anywhere, and student activists, has been campaigning in support of various new laws to speed up the phasing out of fossil fuels in Ireland. Before joining Trócaire she spent three years as the Climate Change and Food Security Policy Officer with CIDSE, an international network of development agencies based in Brussels. She has worked in both the governmental and non-governmental sectors, at UN and European levels, and has coordinated development projects in Southern Africa. Cliona has an academic background in European Union Studies, Human Rights and Democratisation, and Development Management.
 
Kassie Siegel
Director, Climate Law Institute, Center for Biological Diversity
Kassie Siegel is senior counsel and director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute. She develops and implements campaigns for the reduction of greenhouse gas and other air pollution and for the protection of wildlife and communities threatened by climate disruption. She authored the petition and litigated the cases leading to U.S. Endangered Species Act protection for the polar bear, and has been a leader in campaigns to keep fossil fuels in the ground. She was named one of the ten most influential California lawyers of the decade by the Daily Journal in 2010, and California Lawyer of the Year by California Lawyer Magazine in 2007 for her work in climate change and environmental law. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley School of Law and has spent her entire career in the developing climate law field.
 
Jakob Skovgaard
Associate Professor, Lund University
Jakob’s research interests focus on the interaction between the international and the domestic levels of climate governance, and between economic and environmental objectives in climate policy. More specifically, his research has focused on mitigation targets, mitigation policy instruments, climate finance and fossil fuel subsidy reform. He is currently undertaking research concerning how international economic institutions (such as the G20 and the OECD) and domestic finance ministries have influenced international climate politics. Besides this research project, Jakob has undertaken research on EU climate politics, including the EU reduction targets, contributions to climate finance and ETS reform.
 
Baltazar Solano Rodriguez
Senior Research Fellow in Energy Systems, UCL Energy Institute
Baltazar Solano Rodriguez is a senior researcher in Energy Systems at the UCL Energy Institute. He specialises in the use and development of energy models for studies ranging from techno-economic analyses of small energy systems to studies of global issues, such as climate change mitigation. Baltazar has modelling experience working at global, national, and sub-national levels. Baltazar has also carried out energy systems modelling research involving the use of UK TIMES and TIAM at global level. Prior to joining UCL, Baltazar worked for AEA Technology, where he was responsible for the delivery of modelling support across the organisation on UK Government and EU energy and climate change programmes. Previously, Baltazar worked as modeller for the UK’s National Nuclear Laboratory and as operations analyst for Schlumberger in O&G exploration.
 
Jan Steckel
Head of Working Group Climate and Development, Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change
Jan heads the working group “Climate and Development” at the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC). His research focuses on climate change mitigation in developing and newly-industrializing countries. More specifically he works on drivers of global carbon emissions, energy and economic development and the political economy and distributional effects of climate policies. He received a Ph.D. in economics from TU Berlin and a Master’s degree in industrial engineering from the University of Flensburg and the University of Southern Denmark. From 2007 to 2013 he worked at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact research. Jan has authored multiple academic articles and has been an author of the IPCC’s Special Report on Renewables as well as its 5th Assessment report. He led a chapter on phasing out coal for the UNEP emissions gap report 2017. He is also affiliated with Berlin’s Technical University, where he teaches courses about Climate Change Economics and Climate Change and Development.
 
Ron Steenblik
Special Counsellor, Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Ronald Steenblik is the special counsellor for Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). He has participated in policy dialogues in numerous international forums, including the G-20 and WTO. He also has directed the OECD’s inventory of support to fossil-fuel production and consumption in OECD countries, and several studies on issues at the nexus of trade and the environment. While on sabbatical from the OECD, in 2006 and 2007, Steenblik served as the first Director of Research for the IISD’s Global Subsidies Initiative (GSI), a programme developed by the International Institute for Sustainable Development aimed at improving information on the extent and effects of subsidies, especially those that are harming developing countries or the environment. Over the last 25 years he has made important contributions to the policy debate on subsidies to agriculture, biofuels, fishing, and energy production. He is also a regular peer reviewer for several academic journals, including Energy Policy. Steenblik earned degrees from Cornell University’s School of Natural Resources and from the University of Pennsylvania.
 
Claudia Strambo
Research Associate, Stockholm Environment Institute, Stockholm Centre
Claudia Strambo joined SEI in December 2013 as a Research Associate within the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate project. Since then, she has worked on a diverse set of research projects, including on fossil fuels extraction and climate mitigation, resilience in the Arctic, coherence of energy security and climate mitigation policies in the European Union, and geopolitics in the context of global environmental change. Her research interests include the politics of energy transition and extractive industries, and environmental security. Before joining SEI, she worked for the Mexican Ministry for the Environment and Natural Resources as a Junior Consultant in Climate Change. She holds a Master in Environmental Policy from the Paris Institute of Political Studies and a Master in International Relations from Peking University.
 
Yonatan Strauch
PhD Candidate, Energy Policy Fellow, University of Waterloo
Yonatan Strauch is completing a PhD in Ecological and Social Sustainability at the University of Waterloo. He has over fifteen years of experience in the energy field as well as expertise in complex systems and innovation theory. His research takes a transdisciplinary approach to understanding tipping points in the transition to clean and decarbonized energy systems.



 
Geoffrey Supran
Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University and MIT
Geoffrey Supran is a postdoctoral fellow working with Prof. Naomi Oreskes in the Department of History of Science at Harvard University. He is also a postdoctoral associate with Prof. Jessika Trancik at the Institute for Data, Systems and Society at MIT. He received his PhD in Materials Science & Engineering at MIT. He also received an MIT Graduate Certificate in Science, Technology and Policy. As an undergraduate, Geoffrey read Natural Sciences (physics) at Trinity College, University of Cambridge. From 2012-16, Geoffrey co-led the fossil fuel divestment campaign at MIT, which precipitated MIT’s first Institute climate action plan. In 2016, he helped organize the first major scientist protests against the Trump administration.
 
Fernando Tudela
Professor and Climate Change Advisor, Centro del Cambio Global y la Sustentabilidad en el Sureste
Fernando Tudela has been a professor at the Center for Global Change and Southeast Sustainability in Tabasco, Mexico, since 2013. He has held diverse positions over his career, including multiple research and teaching appointments in Mexico and in the UK. He served as Academic Director of the Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD) Programme at the Rockefeller Foundation, and as an officer of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme. From 1996 to 2000, he was chief of staff for Mexico’s Secretariat for the Environment, Natural Resources and Fisheries (SEMARNAP), and served as climate negotiator for Mexico. He was also Undersecretary for Planning and Environmental Policy at SEMARNAP from 2003 to 2012, responsible for climate policies and programmes. He has chaired the Climate Change Expert Group at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and as vice-chair of the board of the Center for Clean Air Policy, in Washington, DC. He has a doctorate in architecture from the University of Seville.
 
Cleo Verkuijl
Research Fellow, Stockholm Environment Institute
Cleo Verkuijl is a Research Fellow at SEI Oxford, where she focuses on climate change and sustainable development issues such as the UNFCCC process and the legal and political dynamics of fossil fuel subsidy reform. As team leader and writer for the Earth Negotiation Bulletin, Cleo has tracked a range of UN sustainable development processes including the UNFCCC, the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development and the UN Environment Assembly. Cleo holds an LL.M in Global Environment and Climate Law from the University of Edinburgh.
 
Shelagh Whitley
Head, Climate and Energy, Overseas Development Institute
Shelagh Whitley is Head of the Climate and Energy Programme at ODI. Shelagh leads ODI’s research on fossil fuel subsidies, green fiscal policy and private climate finance. Prior to joining ODI, Shelagh worked for Camco, a carbon project developer, on the origination, execution and financing of carbon projects covering a range of low carbon technologies in Asia, Africa, and North and South America. Shelagh was the Chair of the Carbon Markets and Investors Association (CMIA) Voluntary Market stream, and Vice-Chair of the Technical Advisory Committee of the Gold Standard (for carbon credits). Following her graduate degree, Shelagh worked as a Project Manager with The Climate Group, a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing business and government leadership on climate change. Shelagh has a Masters Degree in International Environmental Policy and Finance from the Fletcher School at Tufts University in the United States, and a Combined Honours BSc in Biology and International Development Studies from Dalhousie University in Canada.
 
Ali Zaidi
Adjunct Professor and Precourt Energy Scholar, Stanford University
Ali Zaidi serves as Precourt Energy Scholar at Stanford University, where he is engaged in research, writing, and teaching at the interdisciplinary intersection of policy and technology innovation through Stanford Precourt Institute for Energy. Prior to joining Stanford University, Zaidi served for eight years in the Obama Administration. From 2014 to 2017, Zaidi was appointed by President Obama to be the Associate Director for Natural Resources, Energy, and Science at the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). In this role, Zaidi led a team of policy and budget experts overseeing a wide array of policy, budget, and management issues across a nearly $100 billion portfolio and a number of federal agencies. During his time in Washington, he also received a JD from Georgetown Law School and was named by Forbes Magazine as among the top "30 under 30" in law and policy.