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Prof Paul Ekins
Professor of Resources and Environment Policy
Bartlett School Env, Energy & Resources
Faculty of the Built Environment
- Joined UCL
- 1st Aug 2009
Research summary
Paul Ekins' academic work focuses on the conditions and policies for achieving an environmentally sustainable economy, and he is an authority on a number of areas of energy-environment-economy (E3) interaction and environmental policy, including: sustainable development assessment methodologies; sustainability indicators; resource productivity; sustainable energy use; E3 modelling and scenarios; the adjustment of national accounts to take account of environmental impacts; environmental economic instruments and ecological tax reform; sustainable consumption; and environment and trade. He is the author of numerous papers, book-chapters and articles in a wide range of journals, and has written or edited twelve books, including Global Warming and Energy Demand (Routledge, 1995); and Economic Growth and Environmental Sustainability: the Prospects for Green Growth (Routledge, London, 2000). His most recent books of which he is editor or co-editor are Understanding the Costs of Environmental Regulation in Europe (Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 2009); Trade, Globalization, and Sustainability Impact Assessment: A Critical Look at Methods and Outcomes (Earthscan, London, 2009); Carbon-Energy Taxation: Lessons from Europe (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2009); Hydrogen Energy: Economic and Social Challenges, (Earthscan, London, 2010); Environmental Tax Reform: a Policy for Green Growth (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2011); Energy 2050: the Transition to a Secure, Low-Carbon Energy System for the UK (Earthscan, London, 2011); Global Energy: Issues, Potentials and Policy Implications (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2015)
Teaching summary
From 1996 to 2002 Paul Ekins taught modules on Environmental Policy, Environmental Impact Assessment and Sustainable Development at both graduate and undergraduate level at Keele University. At UCL he has contributed lectures on climate change policy to a number of MSc or MRes courses, including MRes in Energy Demand Reduction and the Built Environment, MSc in Global Health and Development and MSc in Built Environment: Environmental Design and Engineering. Since September 2013 he has contributed to three modules on UCL's Masters in the Economics and Policy of Energy and the Environment, of which he was the architect. He supervises a large number of PhD students. He has a Higher Education Teaching Certificate (Level III/SEDA [Staff and Educational Development Association]).
Education
- Other higher degree, Master of Science |
- Birkbeck College
- Doctorate, Doctor of Philosophy | 1996
- University of Bradford
- Other higher degree, Master of Philosophy | 1987
- Birkbeck College
- Other higher degree, Master of Science (Economics) | 1987
- University College London/Imperial College
- First Degree, Bachelor of Science | 1971
Biography
Paul Ekins has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of London and is Professor of Resources and Environmental Policy at the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources, University College London. From 2004-2014 he was a Co-Director of the UK Energy Research Centre, and from 2014-19 its Deputy Director, leading on its Energy Resources theme, with research publications on low-carbon futures, fossil fuels and hydrogen. In addition, he is a member of UNEP's International Resource Panel and was a lead author on its publications on resource efficiency and mineral resource governance. From 2005-10 he was Chairman of the Government-funded National Industrial Symbiosis Programme (NISP), the UK’s most successful programme to improve resource productivity. From 2002-2008 he was a Member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution. From 1997-2005 he was a specialist adviser to the Environmental Audit Committee of the House of Commons, from 2003-2007 was a Member of the Government’s Sustainable Energy Policy Advisory Board, and in 2007 was a Specialist Adviser to the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Climate Change Bill. He has extensive experience consulting for business, government and international organisations, which has included over 50 projects and consultancies over the last ten years, and many advisory positions. From 2003-17 he was a member, and then Chairman, of the Judging Panel, UK Ashden Sustainable Energy Awards, and he is on the Judging Panel of the Rushlight a Awards. He was a member in 2010-11 of two Ministerial Advisory Panels, on the Green Deal (DECC) and on the Natural Environment White Paper (DEFRA), and was also on the Advisory Board of DECC's Energy Efficiency Deployment Office. In 2011 he was appointed Vice-Chairman of the DG Environment Commissioner’s High-Level Economists Expert Group on Resource Efficiency and a member of the European Commission's high-level European Resource Efficiency Platform. From 2015-18 he was a member of the European Commission's High-Level Panel on the European Decarbonisation Pathways Initiative. From 2017-19 he was Co-Chair of UN Environment's sixth edition of the Global Environment Outlook (GEO-6), following the publication of which he has been Co-Chair of UNEP's GEO-for-Business initiative. He is also Co-Chair of the Green Growth Knowledge Platform (GGKP)'s Research Committee on Natural Capital. In 1994 Paul Ekins received a Global 500 Award ‘for outstanding environmental achievement’ from the United Nations Environment Programme. In 2015 he was awarded an OBE in the UK's New Year's Honours List for services to environmental policy.