Search Staff Member
Andrei Marcu
Founder & Executive Director
Michael Mehling
Founding Member & Senior Fellow
Michael Mehling is an Environmental lawyer with a strong background in legal and institutional analysis, complemented by several years of experience working in an interdisciplinary setting. Michael Mehling Deputy Director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research (CEEPR) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a Professor at the School of Law of the University of Strathclyde. Ample experience working with carbon pricing, market-based instruments and capacity building for environmental reform in developing countries. Extended periods of work experience in emerging economies. Project lead, EU Emissions Trading Outreach to Developing Countries (3 Phases, including “ICAP Summer School”/“EU ETS Summer University”, 2008-2014, budget: EUR 2.9 million); judicial clerk trainee at the German Emissions Trading Authority (DEHSt) (2004); Facilitator, World Bank Institute and Partnership for Market Readiness eLearning courses on emissions trading (2013-2017); Co-chair of Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition (CPLC) Scientific Committee (since 2017); Editor-in-chief of the Carbon & Climate Law Review (CCLR) (since 2007); Contributing Author to the 5th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (2012-2014); more than 100 publications, including numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals as well as editor of and contributor to two relevant volumes: Emissions Trading in Practice: A Handbook on Design and Implementation (Washington, DC: World Bank, 1st ed. 2016; 2nd ed. 2021); and Improving the Clean Development Mechanism: Options and Challenges Post-2012 (Berlin: Lexxion, 2011). Lead author of World Bank Partnership for Market Implementation technical report on “Governance of Emissions Trading Systems” (forthcoming 2021).
Tomasz Chruszczow
Founding Member & Senior Fellow
Tomasz Chruszczow is an experienced High Level Official and diplomat. He has been active in the field of environmental protection for more than 30 years, with a special focus on climate change, industrial emissions and waste management. He is also an expert in international environmental policies and a Member of the Polish National Committee for Environmental Impact Assessment.
Tomasz, served in Polish and European industry organisations as a representative of Polish glass manufacturers, including as the Vice President of CPIV – Standing Committee of European Glass Industries. Other experiences include: Delegate to the Consultative Commission on Industrial Change (CCMI) in the European Economic and Social Committee, implementation of the IPPC and EU ETS directives in Poland, Chair of the Technical Working Groups in Polish IPPC Centre and Poland’s delegate to the European IPPC Bureau.
In the international realm, Tomasz has been the EU lead climate negotiator and Head of Polish delegation at UN Climate Conferences, Chair of the EU WPIEI Climate Change during Polish EU Council Presidency, High-Level Climate Champion and chair of UNFCCC global negotiations, Chair of the UNFCCC Subsidiary Body for Implementation – SBI as well as the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice – SBSTA, Member of the UN Adaptation Committee 2012-2015, negotiating on behalf of the EU final provisions of the Paris Agreement on forestry during Paris COP21. Tomasz graduated from the Technical University of Warsaw.
Aaron Cosbey
Senior Fellow
Natalie Kushko
Senior Fellow
Natalie Kushko is a senior sustainable low emission economic development, climate change, and international carbon markets expert with over 20 years of experience in inter-governmental UNFCCC negotiation, extensive on-ground experience on UNFCCC flexible mechanisms, climate change policy-making and implementation on international and national levels, as well as regional level in emerging markets of Eurasia region. Furthermore, she has over 10 years of extensive professional experience working with international development cooperation projects (EBRD, GIZ, UNDP, USAID, among others). Ms. Kushko currently is a Team Leader of national and international experts and firms supporting the GoU on second Ukrainian NDC development under Paris Agreement EBRD, also providing international legal expertise and, planning and supervising transparent and inclusive stakeholders’ consultation process for over two years on second NDC development process. She served as Team Lead of UNDP project providing support to Ukrainian Parliament on sustainable energy and environment issues.
Earlier, Ms. Kushko managed Ukrainian 2050 Low Emission Development Strategy development process under Paris Agreement, including transparent and inclusive stakeholders consultation process and drafting the Strategy policy document as a Task Leader on LEDS under USAID Project for over 36 months on developing the Strategy as the very first transparent and inclusive stakeholders’ consultation process introducing best international practices for such process; she also provided support to the GoU on national climate change and low emission development policy-making; she was a management team member of multi-million project and managed national and international sub-contractors. She managed the process of national climate change legislation development and adoption process by the GoU, namely – State Climate Change Policy Concept till 2030 and its Action Plan. She also served as an Advisor to the Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine on climate change issues, including UNFCCC negotiation process, national climate change and low emission policy making and climate change cross-sectoral inter-ministerial coordination. Ms. Kushko serves as member/alternative member of UNFCCC CDM Executive Board since 2012.
Previously, she served as Advisor on climate change and sustainable development to various GoU officials, local authorities, including Head of State Environmental Investment Agency, Lviv City Mayor and Parliament Members. Before that, Ms. Kushko has been working for the world leading carbon aggregator Ecosecurities Group Plc as Ukraine Country Coordinator/Origination Team dealing with JI projects identification, development and implementation support in Eurasia region. Ms. Kushko also served as Eurasia Coordination sustainable development program’s Executive Director of Ukraine’s National Accounting NGO as a part of USAID project on Sustainable Business Development. She worked as Senior Agribusiness Expert with the EU TACIS project developing first agribusiness supply chains in Ukraine and managed private business entities
Bill Thompson
Senior Fellow
Bill Thompson joined ERCST as a Senior Fellow in January 2022. Bill is currently Co-Chair of the UK Emission Trading Group’s ETS Workgroup. The WG comprises UK major ETS emitters, relevant UK Trade Associations, Verifiers, Traders and Accreditation Authorities. UK Government Ministries BEIS and HM Treasury also participate alongside regulators from the UK Devolved Authorities and the UK Environment Agency.
Bill was previously Director Climate & Energy Policy – Europe for the BP plc Group Policy Team. He has extensive regulatory experience from having worked and lived in Brussels for five years. He also served as a representative on relevant climate & energy in Fuels Europe, CEFIC, Business Europe, CONCAWE, IETA and IOGP. He has extensive operational and regulatory experience of the EU ETS and the UK ETS and their evolution as well as of the UNFCCC Kyoto & Paris Climate Agreements.
A Graduate of Aston University’s Management School, Bill worked in procurement at British Steel, gaining his Membership of Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply, before joining BP Oil UK. He is also a Fellow of the UK Emissions Trading Group.
email: billthompson8921@gmail.com
Olivier Imbault
Senior Fellow
John Cooper
Senior Fellow
John Cooper has 38 years of international experience in commercial business, technology, and policy engagement with Governments. Widely recognised for his leadership with a challenging but constructive approach to high level business/government relationships. He graduated in Engineering from Cambridge University and has held senior and Group Leadership positions with BP, based in U.K., USA and Europe. From 2015-2023 he was Director-General of one of the largest trade associations in Brussels, FuelsEurope & Concawe representing the entire European fuels industry to the EU institutions for the policy and regulatory processes. He is credited with transforming the association to a highly effective and respected group, contributing to meet the challenges of the next decades. He has a wide network across several industries up to CEO level, also with ministers, Commissioners, senior officials and politicians.
Jean-Yves Caneill
Senior Fellow
Dr. Jean-Yves Caneill holds an engineering degree from ENSTA and completed his PhD at University Paris VI in 1979, after which he joined Electricité de France (EDF), where he was responsible of climate change issues. In EDF, Jean-Yves launched the first project devoted to the climate issue in 1990. In 1995, he started to get involved in the international process on tackling climate change and became strongly involved in the EU developments related to the design of the Emission Trading Directive, focussing on the economic consequences of the carbon constraint for the management of power generation units.
Later, he moved to the corporate level of EDF Group, where he became Head of Climate Policy. He has been strongly involved in the European and international debate on climate issues, attending the climate negotiation conferences under the Eurelectric banner. In 2007/2008 he prepared a climate change mitigation strategy, which was adopted in 2008. Later on, he coordinated the action of the Group on climate change adaptation and resilience issues and prepared the relevant strategy which was adopted in 2011.
From 2007 to 2017 he has been piloting a committee created to follow and decide relevant R&D issues linked with climate change adaptation and resilience issues (extreme events, water modelling issues, climate change projections, etc..). He continued to work on this issue when EU Commission developed its own climate change adaptation strategy together with Member States. In particular, he was nominated to represent the private sector (Business Europe) in the stakeholder consultation working group set up by the EU EC to prepare this strategy, which was adopted by the EU in 2013.
He has also been strongly involved in dialogues with EGTT, TNA, TEC and CTCN process (UNFCCC) through WBCSD and ICC. He was a member of the CTCN Advisory Board for two mandates, where he represented the private sector. Additionally, he is also involved in various collaborations with MIT, CEPS, and IDDRI. Dr. J.Y. Caneill joined ERCST in 2018 as Senior Fellow, where he works on EU and international issues related to climate change policy. He is also IETA Fellow.
Email: jycaneill@ercst.org
Alexandra Maratou
Senior Policy Analyst
Alexandra joined ERCST in 2020 as a Senior Policy Analyst. She focuses on economic and climate change policies at the European and international levels, including carbon pricing and border carbon adjustments.
She has 12 years of professional experience in policy research and analysis, with a focus on energy, climate and the environment. Prior to ERCST, she worked for consultancy COWI, where she conducted studies on behalf of the European Commission and other public sector clients. She has extensive experience in the area of fluorinated greenhouse gas policies and alternatives, both at the EU-level and in the context of international UN negotiations under the Montreal Protocol. In the outset of her career, she worked as a research assistant at Cambridge University’s Electricity Policy Research Group, where she inter alia conducted research on low-carbon electricity generation technologies, and innovation.
Alexandra holds an MSc degree in Environmental and Resource Economics from University College London, as well as a BA degree in Economics from the Athens University of Economics and Business.
Email: amaratou@ercst.org
Phone: +32 468 203 390
Juan Fernando López
Manager & Senior Policy Analyst
Juan is an economist specialised in EU Climate Policy and has recently joined ERCST as Manager & Senior Policy Analyst. Prior to ERCST, Juan worked as an Adviser in Climate Change & Energy at the European Industrial Minerals Association focusing on the EU ETS and other files such as CBAM, ETD and the RED and sustainable finance.
Beforehand he was a trainee at the European Commission, where he contributed to the European Commission proposal for an EU Multiannual Financial Framework, and Climate Mainstreaming co-chaired by DG CLIMA.
With a solid academic background and previous management work experience at university, he holds a University Degree in Economics and a Masters Degree in European Studies from the University of Sevilla. In 2017 he obtained a Masters Degree in Economics of the EU at the College of Europe in Bruges, with a specialisation in European Public Policy Analysis. In 2019, he was invited by the European University Institute to present his master thesis on “The impact of political announcements on the EU ETS”, at the Florence School of Regulation (FSR) Climate Annual Conference.
Email: jlopez@ercst.org
Pauline Nouallet
Senior Policy Analyst
Pauline joined ERCST in 2022 as a Senior Policy Analyst. She focuses on economic and climate change policies at the European and international levels, including carbon pricing and border carbon adjustments.
She has 8 years of professional experience in policy research and analysis, with a focus on energy, climate and the environment. She has strong experience in conducting impact assessment and evaluation of public policies, as well as producing and appraising business cases of public infrastructure projects. Prior to ERCST, this experience has been gained through working in consultancy, non-departmental public body as well as in research institutes.
Pauline holds an MSc degree in Environmental, Energy, and Climate Change Economics from AgroParisTech, as well as a certificate in Impact Evaluation of Policies and Programmes from the United Nations University (UNU-Merit).
Email: pnouallet@ercst.org
Phone: +32 469 12 62 25
Ana Ruiz
Policy Analyst
Ana joined ERCST as a Policy Analyst in 2023. She recently worked as an Advisor to the Portuguese Minister for the Environment and Climate Action and to the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate, analysing and advising on climate related topics, legislation and regulations, within an international, european and national context.
Beforehand Ana worked in Lisbon as a qualified lawyer in the fields of civil and commercial litigation, corporate, energy, real estate, urban planning and environmental law.
Ana holds a Master of Laws (LL.M) in Global Environmental Law and Governance from the University of Strathclyde (Glasgow) with a dissertation on the ‘Interpretation and Application of the Paris Agreement ‘Best-Available-Science’ standard: Compliance Mechanisms in MEA vis-à-vis International Courts and Tribunals”, and a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) from the University of Lisbon.
E-mail: aruiz@ercst.org
Laure Fleury
Policy Analyst
Laure is a Policy Analyst currently contributing to ERCST’s projects on climate trade (CBAM and CTNA). Her interests cover climate topics such as trade and climate policy, market-based approaches, energy economics, and just transition.
Laure holds as MSc in Environmental Economics and Climate Change from LSE and a BSc in Economics from Maastricht University. Some of her research has been published at the Berkeley Economic Review.
Laure has a wide range of experience in environmental policy and economic research. She has held positions in the private sector, working in consulting in London, in research institutes in Munich, Amsterdam, Barcelona, and New Dehli, and at the United Nations in New York. Laure enjoys leveraging her strong quantitative skills to inform and advance actionable solutions for addressing climate change, drawing from her extensive and diverse experience across sectors and regions.
Email: lfleury@ercst.org
Phone: +32 469 13 61 67
Marino Varricchio
Policy Analyst
Marino Varricchio joined ERCST in August 2024 as a Policy Analyst, focusing on carbon removals (CCS, CCU, CDRs) and sustainable fuels.
Prior to this, he worked as an EU Affairs Advisor at ExxonMobil from 2021. Marino holds a Master of Science (MSc) in Public Policy and Philosophy from the London School of Economics, which he completed in 2021.
His experience also includes research work at various centers and institutions, including Mercatus Center, the American Institute for Economic Research, Luiss University, and the Institute of Economic Affairs.
He is also co-chair of the European Commission’s Working Group on the public perception of ICM Technologies.
Email: mvarricchio@ercst.org
Phone: +32 480 66 72 46
Chiara Cavallera
Junior Policy Analyst
Chiara Cavallera joined ERCST in early 2024 as a Junior Policy Analyst. She focuses on energy and climate policy developments with a particular focus on Hydrogen and the European Green Deal. Before joining the team, she gained experience in energy and climate topics working in Public Affairs consultancies and at the European Energy Forum in Brussels. Chiara holds a Master’s degree in International Relations – European studies from the University of Turin, Italy. Her dissertation, titled “The Energy Policy of the European Union,” analysed the EU legislative framework, historical tendencies, and the latest developments in light of the energy crisis. While she was completing her studies, she did internships at the Turin Chamber of Commerce and at the Permanent Representation of Italy to the European Union, where she worked in the Competitiveness and Growth office, focusing on energy topics.
Email: ccavallera@ercst.org
Anna Nosichenko
Finance Assistant
Anna joined ERCST in February 2023. She holds a Master degree in Computer Engineering (Tashkent State Technical University, Uzbekistan). Since 1996, Anna has worked on several projects funded by the European Commission in the energy sector of Uzbekistan. In 2000 she has joined the Energy Charter Secretariat in Brussels where she worked during 20 years as Assistant to the Deputy Secretary General and as a Financial Controller of the EU4Energy Project. She has solid knowledge of project planning, launch and implementation; projects budget and financial reporting, procurement, payroll for local and international experts, coordination with local ministries and experts in the countries of the project, missions’ logistics and reporting, organisation of trainings and events.
With her long-term experience in an international and multicultural environment, practical experience in the wide range of administrative tasks, vivid communication, presentation and networking abilities, she is providing information to the ERCST members and partners and support to the ERCST Executive Director.
Email: anosichenko@ercst.org
Phone number: +32 468 232 685
Nigel Caruana
Junior Economic Researcher
Nigel’s role in ERCST is to bring a fresh economic perspective and a high-quality quantitative approach to ERCST’s work. His interests cover climate topics such as, market-based approaches, emissions target setting, agriculture, voluntary disclosure and international climate diplomacy. He is currently contributing to ERCST’s projects on the State of the ETS and the Future of the EU ETS.
A graduate climate economist from LSE, Nigel has a wide range of experience in environmental and climate policy. From a local level to an international level, he has held positions in the private sector, working in consulting, the national-policy sector with work at the national environment authority, the Maltese Chamber of Commerce, and the National Youth Council. Most recently, he gained intensive experience at the Council of the European Union, where he focused on the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, the 2040 Climate Target communication, and the EU’s preparation for COP, the UN’s climate negotiations. His aim is to use his quantitative analysis skills to drive climate action.
At LSE, he conducted research on the impact of carbon disclosure on company value as part of his MSc in Environmental Economics and Climate Change. Nigel also holds a B.Com in Economics and Public Policy from the University of Malta.
Email: ncaruana@ercst.org
Phone: + 32 468 20 32 75
Fabrizio Provenzano
Communication Officer
Fabrizio joined ERCST in August 2024, as a Communication Officer.
Previously, he worked at the Strategic Support Unit of the European Parliament’s DG COMM in 2024, and as EU Public Affairs Assistant at Concilius Europe from 2022 to 2023.
He holds a Master in Political and Governmental Communication and Marketing from LUISS in Rome, an Executive Master in EU Public Affairs and Communication from IHECS Brussels, a Post-graduate Course in Diplomacy from ISPI in Milan and a Master’s Degree in International Relations from the University of Bologna.
Fabrizio has also been a Communications Officer at YPFP since 2022 and worked at the Council of Europe in 2019.
Email: fprovenzano@ercst.org
Phone: +32 468 31 55 14
