Welcome to my website
My passion is bridging research and policy – finding ways in which ideas can be used in a transformative way to reduce poverty. This is where you will find links to current projects and an archive of past work, as well as my blog.
What's new?
Positive Tipping Points: How to Fix the Climate Crisis
Tim Lenton
The Climate Diplomat: A Personal History of the COP Conferences
Peter Betts
What did Tony Blair get right (on climate)?
Four strategic priorities for climate research and action in 2025 – and one for think-tanks and public authorities
The Rise and Fall of the Department for International Development
Mark Lowcock and Ranil Dissanayake
The Emissions Gap: What Does It Mean for Us?
Is green growth sub-optimal growth?
Indicators of Global Climate Change 2023
Not the End of the World: How we can be the first generation to build a sustainable planet
Hannah Ritchie
COP 28: neither a triumph nor a disaster, so let’s just crack on
State of Climate Action 2023
Within Reach: Navigating the Political Economy of Decarbonization
Stéphane Hallegatte and others, for the World Bank
International development in a contested world: ending extreme poverty and tackling climate change
Climate change updates: implications for local action
Climate Change Isn’t Everything
Addendum: age-specific carbon budgets
A personal lifetime carbon budget
Next steps for carbon footprint calculators
The Value of a Whale
Panning for gold: what’s to like in the new UK strategy for international development?
Gambling on Development: Why Some Countries Win and Others Lose
Stefan Dercon
Challenges for the activist think-tank
Strategising development cooperation for the (rest of the) 2020s
How to avoid a climate disaster: The solutions we have and the breakthroughs we need
Bill Gates
Sustainable Futures: An Agenda for Action
Where to go from Glasgow? Three priorities for developing countries
Beyond a Fringe: Tales from a reformed Establishment lackey
By Andrew Mitchell
Degrowth or Decoupling?
Can we live within environmental limits and still reduce poverty?
Fairness and opportunity: A people-powered plan for the green transition
The final report of the IPPRInstitute for Public Policy Research (London) Environmental Justice Commission
Seven Ways to Change the World: How to Fix the Most Pressing Problems We Face
Gordon Brown
Go Big: How to Fix Our World
Resilience and relevance: the role of reserves in managing think-tanks
UK co
mparative advantage: the missing chapter in the UK’s Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy
Do Not Disturb: a challenge to development actors on human rights and authoritarian development
Four lessons from the UK-Bangladesh Climate Partnership Forum – and four actions needed by policy-makers
Think-tanks in times of crisis. Prepare. Prod. Promote. Pitch. Produce.
What Next for UK Aid?
Can we do better than A-S-I? Yes. Shrink! Shift! Shuffle!
Emissions Gap Report 2020
Less is More: Previewing a debate on de-growth
Motivate. Mobilise. Manage. Repeat. Further thoughts on leadership.
How can the Y20 influence the G20: a ten point plan
Counting carbon in global trade: why imported emissions challenge the climate regime and what might be done about it
Technology and think-tanks: two challenges
The conversation we need to have about the recovery from COVID: what’s easy, quick and cheap?
Virus Vision and Virus Realism. In reverse order.
Seminar at IDS, 26 March 2020: Responding to the Climate Cataclysm
Loaded after Covid: priming policy for after the pandemic
How to manage cross-cutting issues in a think-tank
Got Brexit Done. What Now for International Development?
Theses for the European Re-Formation
How to unlock the Glasgow COP
Principles for a Global Green New Deal
Climate action: why developed countries should track imported emissions, and how to make certification and labelling work for developing countries
India in Africa: serving both profit and wider purpose
Dear Europe
A priority for MEPs: elbow your way onto the Development Committee
A DFIDDepartment for International Development response to the ‘climate cataclysm’
People, Power, and Profits: Progressive Capitalism for an Age of Discontent
Joseph Stiglitz
Ten Questions for new MEPs
Time to give the carbon footprint a higher profile in climate change policy
Strengthening research impact: the LIFT model for leaders and managers
The Globotics Upheaval: Globalisation, Robotics, and the Future of Work
By Richard Baldwin
Policy relevant research and influence: a climate change teaching case
The Future of Capitalism: Facing the New Anxieties by Paul Collier
Time to reboot EUEuropean Union aid?
So you think you know about EUEuropean Union aid: Take the Quiz!
The EUEuropean Union to the rescue: priorities for a positive multilateralism
Prosperity and Justice: A Plan for the New Economy
Final report of the IPPRInstitute for Public Policy Research (London) Commission on Economic Justice
Brexit update – September 2018
Trumped-Up Aid and the Challenge of Global Poverty by Tony Vaux
Re-thinking the concept of fragile states
Finding meaning in Theresa May’s Cape Town speech
‘Advancing Human Development: Theory and Practice’ by Frances Stewart, Gustav Ranis and Emma Samman
The challenge for global think tanks in 2018
Edge of Chaos
The Mordaunt doctrine: A mission for Global Britain
Does ICAI need a broader remit? Lessons from the Review of the Conflict, Security and Stability Fund
A World for the Many Not the Few: The Labour Party’s Vision for International Development
A Brexit update: why the development sector needs to mobilise
Training Cases on Think-Tank Governance
Two opinion pieces on the EUEuropean Union development agenda in 2018
Jobs in Africa: the role of a forward-looking food industry
Six questions regarding Foreign Office management of UK aid
In the Footsteps of Isambard Kingdom Brunel
We need to talk about Europe
Where next for the global climate negotiations?
Trouble in the Making? The Future of Manufacturing-led Development
Roadmap to Remain: An Open Letter to Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron
Taming Cerberus
Working together after Brexit: why and how Germany, the EUEuropean Union and the UK can continue to collaborate on international development
Time to end the tying of EUEuropean Union oda?
Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System
By Alexander Betts and Paul Collier
Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think like a twenty-First Century Economist
Kate Raworth
A Note on the 2016 aid statistics
A new case must be made for aid. It rests on three legs.
DFID’s Economic Development Strategy
The proposed New European Consensus on Development: Has the Commission got it right?
