Professor Sam Fankhauser

Profile

Sam is Professor of Climate Change Economics and Policy at the Smith School and the School of Geography and the Environment. Before moving to Oxford, Sam was Director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics, where he remains a Visiting Professor.

Sam works at the intersection of research and public policy. He is interested in the policy interventions and governance arrangements that are needed for a smooth transition to net zero greenhouse gas emissions. He has also worked on climate change adaptation and sustainable growth in developing countries.

He was an inaugural member of the UK Climate Change Committee and its Adaptation Sub-Committee, and he served as a non-executive Director of CDC Group, the UK's development finance institution.

Earlier in his career, Sam worked at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), where he was Deputy Chief Economist, the World Bank and the Global Environment Facility. He has studied economics at the University of Berne (Switzerland), the London School of Economics and University College London.

Projects

• Research Director, Oxford Net Zero
• Place-based Climate Action Network (PCAN)
• CO2RE Hub
• Climate-Compatible Growth (CCG)
• PRINZ
• Green Fiscal

Recent publications

Books

• Atkinson, G. and Fankhauser, S. (eds.) (2019) Sustainability Economics. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham. pp. 896. ISBN: 978 1 78643 910 9.
• Fankhauser, S. (ed.) (2019) The Economics of Climate Resilience and Adaptation. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham. pp. 912. ISBN: 978 1 78897 152 2.
• Averchenkova, A., Fankhauser, S. and Nachmany, M. (eds.) (2017) Trends in Climate Change Legislation. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham. pp. 232. ISBN: 978 1 78643 577 4.

Journal articles

• Averchenkova, A., Fankhauser, S. and Finnegan, J. (2021) The influence of climate change advisory bodies on political debates: Evidence from the UK Committee on Climate Change. Climate Policy.
• Eskander, S., Fankhauser, S. and Setzer, J. (2021) Global lessons for climate change legislation and litigation. Environmental and Energy Policy and the Economy, 2: 44-82.
• Fankhauser, S., Smith, S.M., Allen, M. et al. (2021) The meaning of net zero and how to get it right. Nature Climate Change.
• Averchenkova, A., Fankhauser, S. and Finnegan, J. (2020) The impact of strategic climate legislation: Evidence from expert interviews on the UK Climate Change Act. Climate Policy, 21(2): 251-263.
• Doda, L.B. and Fankhauser, S. (2020) Climate policy and power producers: the distribution of pain and gain. Energy Policy, 138. 111205.
• Eskander, S. and Fankhauser, S. (2020) Reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by national climate legislation. Nature Climate Change, 10: 750-756.
• Fankhauser, S., Kotsch, R. and Srivastav, S. (2020) The readiness of industry for a transformative recovery from COVID 19. Global Sustainability, e3: 1-10.
• Fankhauser, S., Kotsch, R. and Srivastav, S. (2020) The readiness of industry for a transformative recovery from COVID 19. Global Sustainability, 3. e37.
• Howarth, C., Bryant, P., Corner, A., Fankhauser, S., Gouldson, S., Whitmarsh, L. and Willis, R. (2020) Building a social mandate for climate action: Lessons from COVID-19. Environmental and Resource Economics, 76: 1107-1115.
• Gannon, K., Crick, F. Atela, J., Babagaliyeva, Z., Batool, S., Bedelian, C., Carabine, E., Conway, D., Diop, M., Fankhauser, S., Jobbins, G., Ludi, E., Qaisrani, A., Rouhaud, E., Simonet, C., Suleri, A. and Wade, C. (2019) Private adaptation in semi-arid lands: A tailored approach to 'leave no one behind'. Global Sustainability, 3. E6.
• Carattini, S., Carvalho, M. and Fankhauser, S. (2018) Overcoming public resistance to carbon taxes. Wiley Interdisciplinary Review Climate Change, 9(5). e531.
• Crick, F., Eskander, S., Fankhauser, S. and Diop, M. (2018) Do How do African SMEs respond to climate risks? Evidence from Kenya and Senegal. World Development, 108: 157-168.
• Day, E., Fankhauser, S., Kingsmill, N., Costa, H. and Mavrogianni, A. (2018) Upholding labour productivity under climate change: An assessment of adaptation options. Climate Policy, 19(3).
• Fankhauser, S. and Jotzo, F. (2018) Economic growth and development with low-carbon energy. Wiley Interdisciplinary Review Climate Change, 9(1). e495.
• Srivastav, S., Fankhauser, S. and Kazaglis, A. (2018) Low-Carbon Competitiveness in Asia. Economies, 6(1). 5.

Book Chapters

• Fankhauser, S. and Stern, N. (2019) Climate Change, Development, Poverty and Economics. In, Basu, K., Rosenblatt, D. and Sepulveda, C. (eds.) The State of Economics, the State of the World. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. ISBN: 9780262039994.