Professor Paul Ekins

Paul Ekins PhD, MSc (Econ), MPhil (Peace Studies), BSc (Eng) has a PhD in economics from Birkbeck College, and a BSc in electrical engineering from Imperial College (both University of London). He is Professor of Energy and Environment Policy at the UCL Energy Institute, University College London. He is a Co-Director of the UK Energy Research Centre, in charge of its Energy Systems theme, and also leads UCL’s involvement in large research consortia on Bioenergy and Hydrogen. He is also Chairman of the National Industrial Symbiosis Programme (NISP), the UK’s most effective initiative at promoting resource efficiency in industry, and the Director of the UK Green Fiscal Commission, which is exploring the prospects for and implications of large-scale environmental tax reform in the UK. He was a Member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution from 2002-2008 and, from 2003-2007, was on the UK Government’s Sustainable Energy Policy Advisory Board. He also has extensive experience consulting for business, government and international organisations.In 1994 Paul Ekins received a Global 500 Award ‘for outstanding environmental achievement’ from the United Nations Environment Programme.

Paul Ekins’ academic work focuses on the conditions and policies for achieving an environmentally sustainable economy, with a special focus on energy and climate policy, and the modelling of the energy system; on innovation; on the role of economic instruments such as environmental taxes; on sustainability assessment; and on environment and trade. He is the author of numerous books, papers and articles on environmental taxation and other sustainable development issues, including Economic Growth and Environmental Sustainability: the Prospects for Green Growth (Routledge, London, 2000).