Peter Barnett

Profile

Peter Barnett is an Honorary Research Associate at the Oxford Sustainable Law Programme and founder of Birch Point Partners, advising ambitious organisations at the intersection of law, finance and climate change. He focuses on the role of the law in managing risk and driving value and impact as we shape a climate-resilient future. 

Peter earlier led legal and governance programmes building climate resilience at Quadrature Climate Foundation.

Before that, Peter was Associate Director, Japan and Southeast Asia at ClientEarth, leading a team of more than 15 law and policy specialists across the region. In earlier ClientEarth roles he led corporate climate litigation in Europe, including landmark shareholder litigation against Polish energy company Enea, successfully challenging the Ostrołęka C coal plant on corporate law grounds. This work was ranked in FT Innovative Lawyers and featured in the Financial Times, Economist, Reuters and other international media.

Peter began his career in complex corporate and financial dispute resolution at leading firms Boies Schiller Flexner in London and Russell McVeagh in New Zealand. He is dual-qualified in New Zealand (non-practising) and England and Wales.

Peter is also a Visiting Researcher at the National University of Singapore Asia-Pacific Centre for Environmental Law and EW Barker Centre for Law and Business. He regularly present on corporate law and climate change to boards, financial institutions, the legal profession, governments and judiciaries internationally.