Welcome to my website
As of March 2026, this website is no longer being updated. I now work mainly on climate issues, especially in Brighton and Hove, and new work can be found on the website of Climate:Change, our independent think-tank on socially inclusive action in the City: www.climatechangebh.org.uk.
Meanwhile, however, this website has over 850 entries, mostly representing my work on international development from 2010-2025. Among much else, there are over 50 book reviews, more than 20 papers and training cases on bridging research and policy and on managing think-tanks, nearly 100 articles on climate change, and many papers on other topics, including aid, food security and nutrition, and the future of international development. See ‘Topics and Themes’ for more details. I can be reached at sm@simonmaxwell.net.
Latest
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?
'How Change Happens' by Duncan Green
Putting flesh on the bones of the new UK Aid Strategy
Brexit: lessons for global development governance
Can the private sector deliver climate compatible development?
(Researchers) Surviving Brexit
Proposed: A Compact with the people of Syria
Five lessons regarding Brexit from the Book of Exodus
Revising the European Consensus on Development
Three memoirs of British aid
Development Frontiers: where poverty and sustainability meet
A commentary on aid reportage
Humanitarian issues in the spotlight
‘Why Europe?’ and ‘What Europe?’. Issues for the new EUEuropean Union Global Strategy
Only inside the European Union can the UK help fight global poverty
Finding a place of one’s own: development agency choices in a new landscape
Climate Compatible Development: Pathway or Pipedream?
Climate change: time for development (studies) to lead the charge
The new UK aid strategy: comments and questions
Towards next generation food policy research
The SDGs: a transformatory challenge for NGOs
Climate change: the Emissions Gap
PCD: Not just for anoraks
Why Clubs matter: Five axioms for the future of global governance
Tomorrowland: a strategy for Italy’s new development cooperation
Finding a niche for DFIDDepartment for International Development in the SDGs
Response to the ICAI consultation
How to avoid the winner’s curse: lessons for a new nutrition policy
Financing for Development: A Rapid Assessment
A challenge on the SDGs
Should protecting and promoting livelihoods be a new Humanitarian ‘Principle’?
Putting on a play: how to moderate a public meeting
The EUEuropean Union International Cooperation and Development Results Framework: A commentary
What should be the priorities for the new EUEuropean Union Security Strategy?
Seven indivisibilities and a conundrum: how to deliver women’s empowerment
Beyond Aid: the Future of UK Development Cooperation
This Changes Everything: Capitalism Versus The Climate by Naomi Klein
Is teacher pleased? The DACDevelopment Assistance Committee (of the OECD) Peer Review of the UK 2014
Development Cooperation Report 2014: Forwards or sideways on Financing for Development?
The New Climate Economy: Report of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate
Climate Compatible Development in Theory and Practice: three book reviews
Designing the development agency of the future
In defence of fair trade
Re-shaping Global Development: will Europe Lead?
Review of Aid on the Edge of Chaos
Paying for Zero: Global Development Finance and the Post-2015 Agenda
Review of Influencing Tomorrow: Future Challenges for British Foreign Policy by Douglas Alexander and Ian Kearns
Sailing into harbour or drifting out to sea? Consensus and challenge on post-2015
How to win the argument on climate change: a five point plan (Part 3 and final)
Summit on the Global Agenda 2013
How to win the argument on climate change: a five point plan (Part 2)
How to win the argument on climate change: a five point plan (Part 1)
Paging Goldilocks: Where do we stand on post-2015 after the New York Special Event?
Commentary on the Review of the EEAS
Lessons from President Obama’s Climate Action Plan
Optimistic about the Global Nutrition Compact
What is the ICAI up to, what have we learned, and what should happen next?
Lessons from the EUEuropean Union Changemakers
Review of ‘Divided Nations: why global governance is failing and what we can do about it’ by Ian Goldin
China's Silent Army: A review
Can the EUEuropean Union deliver joined-up thinking and action in international development? Eight steps for a better External Action Service
Maximum Aspiration and Minimum Standards: Driving Change in Business Contributions to Poverty Reduction
How can the EUEuropean Union take forward the resilience agenda: a ten point plan
Is there a future for Northern NGOs in a world of MICs?
Review of Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson
Review of ‘The Carbon Crunch’ by Dieter Helm
The optimists and pessimists are far apart on climate change. How can we disrupt the psychological status quo?
Conquering the Hydra: a twenty point programme for reform of multilateral aid
Looking to the future of development and humanitarian aid: what can be seen in the crystal ball?