Ep23: James Cameron ‘Trade and sustainability - the radical in a suit’

Last but not least, our concluding episode of 2020 is with James Cameron. No not the director, but he is doing radical things in a suit (this will make more sense once you press play). Find out why Tom Paine was an important inspiration for his career, what the WTO needs to do to progress and trade in post-Brexit UK. Bio James Cameron is a barrister, independent adviser and social entrepreneur, and a recognised leader of the global climate change community. He is an expert on sustainability and trade policy – and as you can imagine he’s very much in demand in Britain right now, not only with the post-Brexit negotiations, but also since he was appointed as a ‘Friend of the COP’ for COP26, advising the Presidency. James is a senior advisor for Pollination, a climate change advisory and investment firm, as well as System IQ, Tulchan Communications and AVAIA Capital. He also sits on the Advisory Board for Heathrow 2.0 and is a London Sustainable Development Commissioner. James was a co-founder and chair of Climate Change Capital, the world’s first green investment bank and sat on the board of GE Ecomagination, Green Running and ET Index. Before that, James was co-founder of the climate change practice at Baker McKenzie, a negotiator on behalf of the Association of Small Island States (AoSIS) at the UNFCCC, and Senior Advisor to the Morocco and Fiji COP Presidencies. He has been a member of the UK Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Group and for eight years was Chair of the Overseas Development Institute (ODI). James has held academic posts at Cambridge, London, Bruges and Sydney and is currently affiliated with the Yale Centre for Environmental Law and Policy. Key links Official Website: https://www.james-cameron.co.uk/ The Precautionary Principle: A Fundamental Principle of Law and Policy for the Protection of the Global Environment (1991) https://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/iclr/vol14/iss1/2/ Carbon Disclosure Project https://www.cdp.net/en Pollination https://pollinationgroup.com/ ODI https://www.odi.org/ London Sustainable Development Commission (LSDC) https://www.london.gov.uk/about-us/organisations-we-work/london-sustainable-development-commission ‘Big Ideas’ theme in the co-authored Epilogue entitled ‘How to make big ideas work’ in Dan Esty’s book; ‘A Better Planet’ (July 2020) https://www.james-cameron.co.uk/big-ideas/a-better-planet-40-ideas-for-a-sustainable-future Webinar: Climate Change and Carbon as an Emerging Asset Class (17 Sep 2020) https://www.james-cameron.co.uk/big-ideas/carbon-cap-webinar-climate-change-and-carbon-as-an-emerging-asset-class Climate Negotiations and Policy (November 2018) https://www.james-cameron.co.uk/big-ideas/yale-podcast-climate-negotiations-and-policy About Cleaning Up Once a week Michael Liebreich has a conversation (and a drink) with a leader in clean energy, mobility, climate finance or sustainable development. Each episode covers the technical ground on some aspect of the low-carbon transition – but it also delves into the nature of leadership in the climate transition: whether to be optimistic or pessimistic; how to communicate in order to inspire change; personal credos; and so on. And it should be fun – most of the guests are Michael’s friends. Follow Cleaning Up on Twitter: [https://twitter.com/MLCleaningUp](https://twitter.com/MLCleaningUp) Follow Cleaning Up on Linkedin: [https://www.linkedin.com/company/cleaning-up-with-michael-liebreich](https://www.linkedin.com/company/cleaning-up-with-michael-liebreich) Follow Cleaning Up on Facebook: [https://www.facebook.com/MLCleaningUp](https://www.facebook.com/MLCleaningUp) Links to other Podcast Platforms: [https://www.cleaningup.live/](https://www.cleaningup.live/)