Bio Information on UK Delegation to Major Economies

UNCLAS LONDON 003712 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PINR SENV UK SUBJECT: Bio Information on UK Delegation to Major Economies Meeting ¶1. (U) Following is biographic information on the five members of the UK delegation to the September 27-28 Major Economies Meeting in Washington DC on climate change and energy security. The five people are Phil Woolas (Environment Minister at DEFRA),Michael Jacobs (Advisor to the Prime Minister),John Ashton (Special Representative on Climate Change, FCO),Henry Derwent (Climate Change Office, DEFRA),and Graham White (Energy Strategy Office, DBERR). Photos are available upon request. Phil Woolas DEFRA Minister of Environment -------------- ¶2. (U) Philip James Woolas ("Phil") (born 11 December 1959 in Burnley, Lancashire, England) was appointed as Minister for the Environment at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in June 2007. His responsibilities include climate change, energy and sustainable development. Before moving to DEFRA, he was the Minister for Local Government at the Department for Communities and Local Government. Previously, Woolas was Deputy Leader of the House of Commons, and has held roles including Government Whip and Parliamentary Private Secretary at the Department of the Environment, Transport and the SIPDIS Regions. He contested the 1995 Littleborough and Saddleworth by-election and has been Member of Parliament for Oldham East and Saddleworth since 1 May 1997. Before entering Parliament, he was Head of Communications at the GMB trade union (1991-1997) and was a television producer for the BBC and ITN (1988-1990). He was President of the National Union of Students from 1984-1986. He is a graduate in Philosophy from Manchester University. He is married with two sons. Michael Jacobs Special Adviser to the UK Prime Minister -------------- ¶3. (U) Michael Jacobs is Special Adviser to the Prime Minister with responsibility for environment, energy and climate change policy. From 2004 to June 2007 Michael had responsibility for advising Gordon Brown as Chancellor of the Exchequer on the same set of issues. These included environmental and transport tax policy (including emissions trading),for which the Chancellor had specific responsibility, and on both day-to-day decisions and strategic policy development in the environment, energy and climate change fields across the government as a whole. Among Michael's activities in the last two years, he led on the $2.6 billion environmental tax reform package announced by the Chancellor in Budget 2007, building on previous budgets and pre-budget reports; was Treasury adviser on the UK Government's Energy Review, Energy White Paper, Planning White Paper, Climate Change Program Review and Climate Change Bill; was responsible for initiating, launching and disseminating the Stern Review on the economics of climate change; initiated and advanced the development of the Energy Investment Framework with the World Bank and regional development banks; initiated agreements on the production of biofuels in Southern Africa with Brazil, South Africa and Mozambique, and on avoided deforestation with Brazil and others, now being taken forward by the German G8 presidency; led on the creation of the $1.6 billion Environmental Transformation Fund for international development and environment; promoted the development of UK policy on carbon capture and storage, including a competition to launch a full-scale commercial demonstration and a collaborative North Sea study with Norway; helped to establish the UK's new $1.2 billion public-private Energy Technologies Institute for RD&D; initiated a market-transforming $100 million procurement program for microgeneration technologies; brokered the deal with lighting manufacturers and retailers to phase out high-energy lightbulbs in the UK by 2011; established initiatives with UK energy companies on new approaches to energy service markets and with retailers on energy efficiency in consumer goods; and helped establish the cross-departmental UK Office of Climate Change. He has taken a central role in the development of the Government's approach to international climate change strategy; and wrote a number of major speeches for the Chancellor on environmental policy. Michael Jacobs is an environmental economist. Prior to joining the Treasury his academic and policy work in the field of environmental economics and policy focused on environmental valuation, the policy application of sustainable development, the design of environmental taxation and other instruments of environmental policy, environmental innovation and growth, and the philosophy and politics of 'quality of life'. He is author of a number of publications in these fields, including The Green Economy: Environment, Sustainable Development and the Politics of the Future (Pluto Press, 1991), Greening the Millennium? The New Politics of the Environment (ed, Blackwell, 1997),and Environmental Modernization: The New Labor Agenda (Fabian Society 1999). Michael Jacobs was formerly a research fellow at the London School of Economics and at the Centre for the Study of Environmental Change, Lancaster University; and before that a consultant in environmental policy and management with CAG Consultants, an employee-owned firm of which he was Managing Director. From 1997 to 2003 he was General Secretary of the Fabian Society. His work there covered the full range of social and political issues, including a major Commission on the politics of taxation and citizenship. His publications include Paying for Progress: A New Politics of Tax for Public Spending (Fabian Society 2000) and Progressive Globalization: Towards an International Social Democracy (Fabian Society 2003). John Ashton Special Representative on Climate Change - FCO -------------- - ¶4. (U) John Ashton is the Special Representative for Climate Change for the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO),Director for Strategic Partnerships at LEAD International and is a founder of the non-for profit "E3G" (Third Generation Environmentalism). John Ashton was born in London on 7 November 1956, and educated at the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle Upon Tyne and at Cambridge University, where he studied Natural Sciences specializing in theoretical physics. In 1977, he spent a year as a research astronomer at the new Cavendish Laboratory. Ashton has spent most of his career in the British Diplomatic Service and the British Foreign Office (FCO). He joined the Diplomatic Service in 1978. From 1981-4, he served as science officer at the British Embassy in Beijing. He was head of the China desk at the FCO from 1984-86. He then spent two years seconded to the UK Cabinet Office before learning Italian and serving in the British Embassy in Rome from 1988-93. From 1993-7, he was seconded to the Hong Kong Government as Deputy Political Adviser to Governor Chris Patten, dealing with matters relating to Hong Kong's transition to Chinese sovereignty. He was closely involved in all major dealings between the UK and China concerning Hong Kong. During this period, his interest in the environment drew him towards the diplomacy of global change. John Ashton left the Foreign Service in 2002 to found E3G an independent not-for-profit organization that works in the public interest to accelerate the global transition to sustainable development. In June 2006 he rejoined the FCO as the UK's "climate ambassador" for the UK Foreign Secretary, Margaret Beckett. Ashton was appointed as a Special Representative for Climate Change. John Ashton is a Member of the Green College Centre for Environmental Policy and Understanding. He also serves on the Advisory Boards of the Climate Institute, Washington DC, and of the UK Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. He is married, to Judy; he has one son, John, and one stepson, Graham. Henry Derwent Director - Climate Change Office, DEFRA -------------- ¶5. (U) Henry Derwent is Director of Climate, Energy and Environmental Risk at the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA),where his responsibilities cover the environmental impacts of and policies towards climate change, sustainable energy, chemicals, biotechnology and genetic modification, the nuclear industry and radioactivity. During the UK Presidency of the EU he was the Special Representative to the Prime Minister on Climate Change. He has previously held a number of positions in the Departments of Transport and Environment, covering roads, transport industries, vehicle licensing, finance, local government and other fields. His last post was a spell as a Corporate Finance Executive on loan to a major international investment bank. Graham White Director, Energy Strategy and International Unit, DBERR -------------- -------------- ¶6. (U) Graham White became the Head of the Energy Strategy and International Unit at the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (DBERR) in July 2006. The Unit is responsible for domestic and international strategy on energy policy. The Unit has specific responsibility for energy strategy, managing interagency co-ordination on sustainable energy, longer-term energy modelling, climate change, international and European energy policy. Previously Graham was a Director in the Energy Markets Unit responsible for energy information systems and the social and environmental impacts of energy markets. He was a member of the UK Government emergency team that dealt with the petrol crisis in September 2000 and has been involved in subsequent emergency planning work. Graham has been involved in a number of international energy initiatives, including work to promote greater transparency in oil markets, the EU internal market and the G8 climate change package, and serves on the International Energy Agency's Governing Board. He is currently chairman of the IEA's Oil Market Group. Graham joined the Civil Service from University and has worked in several departments (Office for National Statistics, Inland Revenue, Cabinet Office and the Treasury) before joining the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in 1989. Since joining the DTI (now DBERR) he has worked on energy in a number of areas. TUTTLE