Research team

Professor Simon Dietz is the research lead for the TPI Centre. He is Professor of Environmental Policy in the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, and the Department of Geography and Environment. He is also a Visiting Fellow at the Oxford Martin School and a Research Associate of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, Oxford University, a CESifo Research Network Fellow, a Principal consultant at Vivid Economics, co-editor of the Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Carmen leads on setting and delivering the strategy of the TPI Centre, as well as overseeing its research and operations. Prior to joining the TPI Centre in the spring of 2023, Carmen was Head of Fixed Income at the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment. She started her career as a sovereign analyst at Salomon Brothers in 1993, with subsequent roles in economic and market analysis research at Citigroup and Morgan Stanley. Carmen holds a Laurea cum laude in political science (major economics) from La Sapienza University in Rome and a Ph.D. in ‘Capital Markets and Business Finance’ from the University of Bergamo, including one year as a visiting scholar at the N.Y.U Stern Business School.

Beata is the Deputy Director at the TPI Centre. Beata has over 12 years’ experience working across the public sector on national level and EU institutions, and academia. Most recently, she served as a Programme Manager at the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership Accelerator leading the Innovators for Change Acceleration Programme. Prior to this, her focus was on developing policies and dialogues, and supporting businesses in the area of energy and climate and economics while working for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European External Action Service. She holds a postgraduate degree in energy and economics from the Warsaw School of Economics.

Ali is a researcher at the TPI Centre contributing to carbon performance assessments and sectoral methodology development. Before joining the TPI Centre, Ali worked as an Analyst at the UK National Audit Office, working on value for money (VFM) reports to support the UK Parliament’s scrutiny of major environmental projects. He also held a secondary role as the co-lead of the Modelling discipline to provide technical and analytical support to office-wide teams. Ali holds a First-Class Honours BEng in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Warwick and graduated with a Distinction in Sustainable Energy Futures from Imperial College London.

Shafaq is as a Data Analyst – Lead for the Climate Action 100+ project at TPI Centre. Before joining the TPI Centre Shafaq has worked on different projects focused on environmental sustainability in urban, rural and agricultural context with the Asian Development Bank and Oxfam GB. Shafaq, did a BSc (Honors) in Economics from the Lahore University of Management Sciences and completed a Masters in Global Development from Queen Mary, University of London. Shafaq also completed a summer semester at London School of Economics during her bachelors.

Alfie is an Analyst at the TPI Centre where he works for the Carbon Performance Team. Prior to working at the TPI Centre, Alfie worked for the University of Warwick on the ‘FIDELIO’ project. Here, he analysed and mapped social data from European national parks to understand the relationships between people and nature. He has also worked for a renewable energy company analysing solar assets. Alfie has an MSc in Environmental Geography from the University of Amsterdam and a BA in Human Geography from the University of Sheffield.

Cristóbal works as a Policy and Data Analyst at the TPI Centre contributing to carbon performance assessments and sectoral methodology development. He works mainly in the Cement and Steel sectors. He previously worked as a Consultant at the UN-Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) on the Economic Development and International Trade and Integration Divisions. Cristóbal graduated with Distinction from the MSc in Environmental Economics and Climate Change programme at the London School of Economics. He also holds a Professional Degree (with distinction) from the University of Chile in Business and Economics.

Hayli is an assistant at the TPI Centre. She mainly works on assisting the team in management of day-to-day tasks and supports research activities by performing Carbon Performance assessments of companies. Before joining the TPI Centre, Hayli worked as an intern at the Climate Change and Sustainability Services Team at EY and WWF. Hayli did a BSc in Environment and Development from the London School of Economics and is currently pursuing her Masters in Sustainability Science Global Leadership at the University of Tokyo.

Sidonie is a Research Assistant at the TPI Centre contributing to carbon performance assessments and methodology development. Prior to joining the TPI Centre, Sidonie worked as an analyst in a climate-change research centre and at an energy-transition consulting firm. She carried out research and analysis on net-zero emission trajectories for major companies in Australia and studied the challenges and solutions for the integration of Distributed Energy Resources to the energy grid in order to accelerate the transition to low-carbon energy. She holds a B.A. in Political Sciences and a MRes in Economics from Sciences Po, Paris, for which she completed a research project on the drivers of individual and social environmental behaviour. 

Nelson in a Policy Officer working at the TPI Centre , where he contributes to assessing the world’s biggest banks in their alignment with the goals of the Paris Agreement. Before joining TPI Centre he worked at Transforma – CCADI. This role involved supporting the main actors of the Colombian financial system to transition to a low-carbon economy by providing assessments, recommendations and engaging with public officials. Nelson holds Professional Degree from Andes University in Bogotá, Colombia.

Nikolaus is a PhD candidate at LSE and a part-time researcher at the TPI Centre. In his PhD research, he aims to explore the impact of sustainable finance on corporate carbon emissions. Previously, he was sector lead at the TPI Centre for banking, oil and gas, cement, autos and shipping, after working as a sustainability consultant at Deloitte and as an ESG analyst at Vigeo Eiris. Nikolaus graduated with a Distinction and the Best Overall Performance Prize in the MSc in Development Studies from the London School of Economics. He also holds a Franco-German Double Degree with Distinction in Political and Social Sciences from Sciences Po Bordeaux and the University of Stuttgart.

 

Setenay Hizliok is an Analyst (Policy Officer) at the TPI Centre. She contributes to the Carbon Performance and Assessing Sovereign Climate-Related Opportunities and Risks (ASCOR) project teams. Setenay previously worked as an Expert at the Ministry of Treasury and Finance in Turkey. Setenay holds a BSc in Political Science and Public Administration and an MSc in European Studies from the Middle East Technical University. She also graduated with a Distinction from MSc in Energy and Climate Policy at the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU), University of Sussex.

Johannes works on the ASCOR project which involves researching climate risk for countries and developing a framework for assessing these risks for sovereign bonds. Before joining the TPI Centre Johannes worked at the 2°C Investing Initiative e.V. as Junior Analyst and Research Intern where he conducted research on how central banks approach climate change risks. At the Institute for the World Economy, he investigated carbon budgets and how they can be manipulated with negative emissions. Johannes also deepened his quantitative skills at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, where he contributed to time-series forecasting. Johannes holds a M.Sc. in Economics from the University of Munich (LMU) and the University of Bologna and B.Sc. in Economics and Political Science from the University of Cologne.

Robert is an Analyst at the TPI Centre working on the Climate Action 100+ and Management Quality projects. Prior to joining the TPI Centre, Robert worked in environmental cost-benefit analysis for a local government, and in methodology development and technical scoring at CDP. Robert has an MSc in Carbon Management from Edinburgh University and a BA in Political Science.

Valentin is Lead Research Analyst and the TPI Centre’s CA100+ Project Lead. Previously he has worked at a health consultancy in Germany and an investment bank in Peru. He holds a BA in Philosophy and Economics from Bayreuth and a MSc in Climate Change, Management and Finance from Imperial College.

Modir works as an Analyst and Policy Officer at the TPI Centre contributing to carbon performance assessments and sectoral methodology development. Before joining the TPI Centre, he worked at the Research Institute of Petroleum Industry (RIPI) researching carbon management strategies in the Iranian Petrochemical sector. He also has extensive experience working as a climate change expert collaborating with Iran's Department of Environment in UNDP's "Climate Promise" projects. Modir completed his master's thesis on mitigation policies in Iran's energy system. He studied Environmental Management in the department of Civil Engineering at the University of Tehran, where he obtained his MSc in 2020. He also holds a BSc in Civil Engineering from the University of Tehran.

Antonina is a Research Project Lead at the TPI Centre team. Prior to joining the TPI Centre, Antonina interned at the Climate Bonds Initiative, assisting research on green bond issuers’ use of proceeds reporting. She has also worked at the International Renewable Energy Agency, primarily on data collection for long-term electricity system modelling of countries in sub-Saharan Africa. She holds an Honours BSc in Environmental Sciences from McGill University and graduated with Distinction from the MSc in Environmental Change and Management at the University of Oxford. She received the ECM Dissertation Publication Prize in order to publish her research on labour econometrics and Just Transition in Alberta, Canada.

Filipe works as an Analyst and Policy Officer at the TPI Centre contributing to carbon performance assessments and sectoral methodology development. Filipe is an economist with a Master's Degree in Economics of the Industry and Innovation from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Before joining the TPI Centre, Filipe acquired research experience on both national and international fronts by serving as a consultant for IGOs and the private sector. During his career, he has engaged in research concerning strategies to finance the net-zero transition, competition policy and applied economics.