The team has a strong track record working with international policy partners, including the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero within UK Government; the Directorate General of Energy and Climate Action (DG ENER/CLIMA) within the European Commission; the Ministry of Finance of Brazil, and other country ministries worldwide; the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and UN agencies such as UNDP and ECLAC.
Professor Jean-Francois Mercure
Director of Exeter Climate Policy
Professor Jean-Francois Mercure’s research focuses on developing theory, models and methods for public policy appraisal in low-carbon innovation, and for assessing the effectiveness and socio-economic impacts of diverse types of low-carbon, energy and climate policies.
He also develops methods to understand and assess climate-related financial risks. He has co-led on two major programs at the World Bank on analytical tool development and coalition for capacity on climate action (C3A) for finance ministries. Prior to this, he was Project Director for the ‘Economics of Energy Innovation and System Transition’, a £5M research programme commissioned by the UK government that worked with stakeholders in India, China, Brazil, the UK and EU (www.eeist.co.uk). He has worked at several universities including the University of Cambridge, where he continues as fellow of the Cambridge Centre for Energy, Environment and Natural Resource Governance (C-EERNG). He regularly engages with policymakers internationally.
Alongside his role as Director of Exeter Climate Policy, Jean-Francois is also an Assistant Director at the University of Exeter’s Global Systems Institute.
Deputy Director of Exeter Climate Policy
Dr Femke Nijsse is a complexity scientist who models the transition towards clean energy in different sectors. She is a key developer of the E3ME-FTT energy-economy-environment model, in particular the FTT submodels on heat, transport and power.
Major energy technologies in E3ME-FTT are represented with evolutionary economics, so that the diffusion of a new technology follows an S-curve. Her work addresses innovation, the integration of high shares of variable renewables in electricity grids and how sector coupling can help accelerate the transition to a net-zero energy system. This work informs what policies are effective at what stage of the transition in which country.
Impact Fellow in Transition Economics
Cormac is a postdoctoral researcher whose work focuses on the transformation of economies.
This includes how economic models can help to describe the potential for structural change, the risk of stranded assets in the low-carbon transition, and the suitability of government decision-making tools for transformative climate action. Cormac helps to develop the Future Technology Transformations (FTT) models and the macroeconomic model E3ME.
Lecturer in GIS and Environmental Spatial Science
Josh is a postdoctoral research associate in the Global Systems Institute, working on tipping points and system resilience.
He was a core member of the group that produced the Global Tipping Points Report 2023 and served as a section lead on the impact of climate tipping points and a chapter lead for early warning signals of climate and positive tipping points. He is currently working with the Earth Commission to quantify safe and just Earth system boundaries.
Climate Policy Modeller
Ian is a PhD student at the University of Exeter as part of the UKRI Environmental Intelligence CDT.
His transdisciplinary research focuses on energy-economy modelling, with a specific interest in power system transitions, uncertainty quantification in climate policy modelling and the politics of knowledge production in transitions research.
He works with the E3ME-FTT energy-economy-environment model family, especially FTT: Power. He seeks to understand the different forms and sources of uncertainty in the science-policy interface, how these are subject to technical as well as socio-political dynamics and use these insights to contribute towards more responsible modelling practices.
Senior Research Impact Fellow
Jesse is a Senior Research Impact Fellow at the University of Exeter’s Global Systems Institute.
His highly interdisciplinary research focuses on understanding and quantifying human-induced environmental change. He has extensive experience working across academic fields as well as with stakeholders, especially in the finance and insurance sectors, on complex sustainability challenges. He was a co-author on the high-profile “No Time To Lose” report that developed narrative short term climate scenarios to better reflect he real-world risks and opportunities that frame our investment decision-making over the short and medium term.
Research Fellow in Complexity Economics
Amir is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Exeter, whose work focuses on mathematical modelling and simulations of the economics of green energy transitions.
PhD Researcher, Environmental Intelligence
Alex is a PhD student at the University of Exeter as part of the UKRI Environmental Intelligence CDT.
His research focuses on energy-economy modelling, with a specific interest in post-growth, energy efficiency and low energy demand futures. He works with the E3ME-FTT energy-economy-environment macroeconometric model, developed by Cambridge Econometrics and the University of Exeter.
PhD Researcher in Climate Macroeconomics and Finance
Francisco is a doctoral researcher at the University of Exeter Business School working on the macro-financial and fiscal implications of climate-related physical and transition tail risks. He has prior experience in macro-financial modelling, applied policy research and outreach, with a focus on challenges facing developing and emerging economies.
Xiaofan Feng
PhD Researcher in Finance
Xiaofan is a PhD student at the University of Exeter. Her research focuses on climate-related financial risks, with a specific interest in transition risks. She examines how climate and economic policy affect public finance, sovereign debt, and corporate finance in emerging economies.
Adrian Baricuatro
PhD Researcher in Climate Macroeconomics and Finance
Adrian is a doctoral researcher at the University of Exeter Business School.
He is interested in modelling scenarios exploring climate-related transition risks and how they interact with broader global megatrends, such as geopolitical fragmentation, artificial intelligence, and demographic shifts to better inform both financial decisions and policymaking. He has a background in finance and accounting and previous experience in the financial audit industry.
