The Climate Leadership Research Centre is an impact-oriented research centre investigating how leaders across politics, business, and sport can play a vital role in driving climate action. Led by researchers at the University of Oxford and funded by the Askehave Climate Foundation, we will use rigorous research methods to understand how and why already-successful climate leaders advocate for climate action. We will use these findings to support other influential individuals on their climate-leadership journeys.
We will provide free, research-based development opportunities to groups of aspiring climate leaders from politics, business and sport: people who want to explore how they can lead by example on climate. New insights about public views of climate leadership will also be shared, shaping the global conversation.
Who we are
Dr Tina Fawcett
Tina Fawcett is an Associate Professor at the Environmental Change Institute. Tina has a background in environment, energy and policy analysis and takes a multi-disciplinary approach to identifying opportunities to enable a just energy transition, including from reducing carbon emissions by individuals, households and organisations. She is leading the project.
Dr Sam Hampton
Sam is a Senior Researcher at the Environmental Change Institute, and a Research Fellow at the University of Bath’s Institute for Sustainability and Climate Change. His research focuses on social transformations for climate action, including the potential for influencers (both high profile and everyday influencers) to catalyse pro-environmental change.
Dr Emilie Vrain
Emilie is a Senior Research Associate at the Environmental Change Institute and co leads the Oxford University Climate Leadership Research Centre. Emilie conducts research on how climate leadership influences followers and wider networks. She specialises in social network analysis and mixed methods to examine how leading by example can shift norms, behaviours and public expectations.
Dr Steve Westlake
Steve is a Lecturer in the psychology of sustainable leadership at the University of Bath. He researches the effects of leading by example with lower-carbon behaviours, the public appetite for such leadership, and the barriers and motivations leaders experience.
Dr Matilda Becker
Matilda is Strategic Partnership Manager at the Environmental Change Institute. Matilda’s main interests lay in stakeholder engagement and working within networks of businesses and academics to realise meaningful and sustainable solutions to issues affecting communities and environment at the local and global scales.
Dr Martin Burgess
Martin is a Researcher at the Environmental Change Institute with a PhD studying how Personal Carbon Accounts could be implemented in the UK. He was previously a Chartered Accountant with a long business background, mostly as Finance Director of several SMEs. He leads the interviewing of established climate leaders.
Dr Mariana Gaytan Camarillo
Mariana is a Research Associate at the Environmental Change Institute. Mariana has a background in environmental psychology and behavioural science. She leads the global survey exploring public perceptions and expectations of climate leadership.