Joachim Monkelbaan

Joachim is Senior Fellow in the Climate & Sustainability Department at KAPSARC, an energy-focused think tank in Saudi Arabia. He works on the interlinkages between trade, investment, climate change, and energy transitions. Previously, he worked with organizations such as the World Economic Forum (WEF), Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO), UN Environment, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD), WHO, and Climate-KIC.

He was a team leader for several Sustainability Impact Assessments of trade agreements for the European Commission (DG Trade), notably the Green Goods Initiative, the EU-Myanmar Investment Protection Agreement, the EU-Philippines Free Trade Agreement (FTA), and on the analysis of impacts of Trade and Sustainable Development (TSD) Chapters in EU FTAs.

Dr. Monkelbaan obtained his PhD in governance for sustainable development from the University of Geneva. Subsequently, he did postdoctoral research at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and at the Institute for Developing Economies (IDE) in Tokyo, Japan. His book on governance for the SDGs has been published in Springer’s ‘Sustainable Development Goals series’. He teaches the course ‘Global Environmental Politics’.