Head of climate negotiation team, France
Paul Watkinson has been working for the French government since 2000 to
secure a strong and effective international response to climate change.
He has been leading the French delegation to the international talks
under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto
Protocol as Head of the International Climate Negotiation Team of the
Ministry for Ecology, Sustainable Development, Transport and Housing
(MEDDTL) and before that International Coordinator of the
Interministerial Task-Force on Climate Change (MIES).
In 2009 and 2010
he was one of the European Union’s lead negotiators at the Copenhagen
and Cancun climate conferences with particular responsibility for
finance and adaptation issues. Under the French EU Presidency in 2008 he
chaired the EU’s working group on climate change. He has spoken on
behalf of the EU in earlier years on a number of topics including the
post 2012 climate regime, adaptation and the impacts of policies on
third parties, and also chaired a number of negotiating sessions on
these and related topics. In 2004-2005 he was chair of the OECD and IEA
Annex I Expert Group. In 2001 he was an advisor to the Moroccan minister
of the environment who chaired the successful Marrakech Climate
Conference that adopted the rulebook for the Kyoto Protocol.
Before working for the French government, he also worked for the OECD
Environment Directorate on sustainable consumption issues, and the UK
Department of the Environment on various environment issues (climate,
environmental liability, ecolabelling), but also on issues related to
local government finance, the control of public bodies and urban
development.
Born in the UK he now has both French and British nationality and he has
studied in both countries, at the Ecole nationale d’administration and
at Cambridge University (Trinity College). He is married with three
children and lives in Paris.