Aaron Cosbey
Senior Fellow
Aaron Cosbey is a development economist with over 25 years’ experience in the law and economics of sustainable development, particularly in the areas of trade and climate change, with current work centering on climate change, green industrial policy, and the mining sector.
Next to being a Senior Fellow at ERCST, he is a Senior Associate with the International Institute for Sustainable Development, an Advisor to the Inter-Governmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development (IGF), a member of the ICTSD E15 Expert Group on Clean Energy and the Multilateral Trading System, and a member of the Green Growth Knowledge Platform Research Committee on Trade and Competitiveness. He serves on Global Affairs Canada’s Environmental Assessment Advisory Group. He has consulted to a wide variety of governments and institutions, including the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (now Global Affairs Canada), Centre for European Policy Studies, CIDA, Commonwealth Secretariat, Environment Canada, European University Institute, IADB, Canada’s National Round Table on Environment and Economy, North American CEC, OECD, UNCTAD, UNDP, UNEP, UNFCCC and the World Bank.
Aaron was project lead on IISD’s Development Dividend Project, which assessed the CDM’s ability to deliver sustainable development benefits to host countries. He was a project lead partner for CEPS’ Climate for Sustainable Growth Project, which assessed the economic, environmental and social impacts of a series of climate-related policies in different case studies. He served as Special Advisor to UNCTAD on Climate, Green Economy and Economic Diversification. He was the leader of a global multi-stakeholder multi-year Swedish-funded effort to elaborate best practice and pitfalls in the area of border carbon adjustment. He has been contracted to advise a number of governments on sustainable investment and trade policies, including Sri Lanka, Namibia, Democratic Republic of Congo and Burkina Faso.
Email: acosbey@ercst.org
