Professor Jouni Paavola

Profile

I am Professor of Environmental Social Science and and Co-Director of the ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy (CCCEP) in Leeds.

My research examines environmental governance institutions and their environmental, economic and social justice implications from ecological economics and institutional economics points of view, with a focus on climate change and biodiversity. I have published my research in journals such as Science, Nature Climate Change, Ecology and Society, Ecological Economics and Energy Policy.

I was a member of the UKRI Strategic Advisory Board of the National Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Research (NICER) programme in 2019-2022 and a member of the Scientific Committee of the European Environment Agency (EEA) in 2008-2016. I am Section Editor of Global Sustainability, Deputy Assistant Editor of Climatic Change and member of the editorial boards of Ecological Economics & Environmental Policy and Governance.

Before joining SRI in 2006, I was Senior Research Associate in the Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE) at the University of East Anglia and Research Fellow in the Oxford Centre for the Environment, Ethics and Society (OCEES) at Mansfield College. I completed an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Resource Development (Environmental and Development Studies) in 2000 at Michigan State University in the United States. Earlier I was Senior Researcher at Tampere University of Technology in Finland.

Responsibilities

• Co-Director of the ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy (CCCEP)

• Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy Phase 2
• Evaluating Performance of Local Climate Policies in Mexico (e-Lection)
• Technology for Sustainability in Organisations: Case Studies in Agricultural Production (TECHSUS)

Student education

I usually manage and partly deliver the SOEE5095 Environmental Economics and Policy module and contribute to the research project module at the Master's level.

Current PhD students:

• Oliver Bruton, How do different climate finance solutions impact outcomes for AFOLU sector climate transitions in developing nations (with Claire Quinn).
• Linmeng Sang, Shorter Working Hours and Low-Carbon Behaviors: A Comparative Analysis of Sustainable Living Strategies in China and the UK (with Diana Ivanova)
• Jie Dong, The Effect of Carbon Tariffs on the Export Competitiveness of Manufacturing Industry: Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies (with Anne Owen and Peter Taylor).
• Zihong Chen, Emissions trading systems and low-carbon and zero-carbon technology innovation in China (with Paul Brockway and Sheridan Few).
• Rokshana Binti Samad, Developing a comprehensive framework to capture the interplay between social and physical dimensions of vulnerability to natural disaster: Vulnerability assessment of communities threatened by riverbank erosion in Bangladesh (with Paula Novo).
• Abdur Hamidi, Social vulnerability and flood exposure: how can a joint assessment provide insights for flood risk governance in Pakistan? (with Paula Novo).
• Gazi Alif Laila, Climate change, local displacement and conflict in Bangladesh (with James Ford and Diana Ivanova).
• Harland Rivas Cooper, Road map for establishing resilient medium-sized cities in the water sector in Honduras (with Paola Sakai)

Completed PhD students

• Ivan Villaverde Canosa, Voices from the frontline: climate change, wildfire, and adaptation in the Russian Arctic (at School of Geography, with James Ford and Robbert Biesbroek)
• Zheng-Hong Kong, From Land Degradation to Sustainable Land Management in China? (at York University, with Lindsay Stringer)
• Ruth Joo, Institutionalisation of Climate Policy and Carbon Markets in the Paris-era (2023, with James Van Alstine)
• Josiane Kakeu, REDD+ integration, implementation, and interaction in the Congo basin: Evidence from Cameroon (2022, with Monica Di Gregorio)
• Marta Baltruszewicz, Household Energy Footprints and Links to Well-Being (2022, with Julia Steinberger and Anne Owen)
• Angela Small, Sustainable organisations: The use of the ecosystem services concept in corporate sustainability (2022, with Alice Owen)
• Seunghan Lee, Towards a thick understanding of the barriers to national climate adaptation policy: the cases of South Korea and the United Kingdom (2022, with Suraje Dessai)
• Augustin Entonu, Unravelling international and Nigerian gas governance (2021, Lindsay Stringer)
• Zexiang Wang, Emission Trading in the European Union and China: A Comparison of System Resilience (2021, with Stephen Hall)
• Harriet Thew, Youth participation in climate change governance (2020, Co-supervised with Lucie Middlemiss)
• Anna Antonova, EU Marine Governance, Contestation and Conservation in Narratives of Wildness on the Bulgarian Black Sea and Yorkshire Coasts (2020, with Fiona Becket)
• Muriel Bonjean Stanton, Knowledge use in climate change adaptation in Europe (2019, with Suraje Dessai)
• Tom Smith, Private actors and market approaches to biodiversity management in Latin America (2018, with George Holmes).
• Ross Gillard; Governance of rapid transitions in mitigation of and adaptation to climate change (2018, with Andrew Gouldson and James van Alstine).
• Adrian Fenton, Climate change adaptation and microfinance: A potential win-win scenario? (2017, with Dr Anne Tallontire).
• Emmanuel Kwayu, The Role of Payments for Ecosystem Services on Poverty Alleviation and Watershed Conservation in Tanzania (2016,  with Susannah Sallu).
• Susanne Lorenz, Uncertainties in climate predictions and their consequences for adaptation strategies (2015, co-supervised with Suraje Dessai and Piers Forster).
• Prasanna Rajapakshe, Demand and benefits of water provision and quality in the North Central Province, Sri Lanka (2015, with Prof Mette Termansen).
• Mireia Pecurul Botines, Institutions and Interplay in Multi-level Governance of Biodiversity (2015, with Monica di Gregorio).
• Rachel Berman, Transforming climate change coping capacity into adaptive capacity in Uganda? (2014,with Claire Quinn).
• Olivia Rendon, Ecosystem Services from the National System of Protected Areas of Honduras. (2014,with Martin Dallimer).
• Dr Jose Octavio Velazquez Gomar, Institutional interactions among biodiversity-related conventions: How interplay management can improve global environmental governance (2014; with Linsay Stringer)
• Monirul Islam, Vulnerability and Adaptation of Fishing Communities to the Impacts of Climate Variability and Change: Insights from Coastal Bangladesh (2013, with Susannah Sallu).
• Krzysztof Niedzialkowski, Institutional Dynamics of Nature Conservation in Poland (2013, co-supervised with Bogumila Jadrzejewska from the Mammal Research Institute of Poland).
• Na’ama Teschner, Integrated transitions toward sustainability: water scarcity and energy security in Israel (2013, with Adrian MacDonald).
• Zografos, Christos. Economic Behavior and Eolic Conflict. (2008; Based at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; co-supervised with Joan Martinez-Alier).

Areas for PhD supervision:

I welcome queries on doctoral dissertation projects on topics such as:

• Climate change governance
• Impacts of and vulnerability and adaptation to climate change
• Natural hazards and risk reduction and management
• Governance of biodiversity and ecosystem service provision
• Social justice in environmental matters

Research groups and institutes

• Sustainability Research Institute
• Economics and Policy for Sustainability

Current postgraduate researchers

• Josiane Kakeu, Eng., PhD
• Gazi Alif Laila
• Rokshana Binta Samad
• Zihong Chen
• Abdur Rahim Hamidi
• Han Chen