Farhana Yamin

Lawyer, Author, Activist, Expert Adviser to Climate Vulnerable Forum An internationally recognised environmental lawyer, climate change and development policy expert. She has advised leaders and ministers on climate negotiations for 30 years, representing small islands and developing countries and attending nearly every major climate summit since 1991. In addition to founding Track 0, she is an Associate Fellow at Chatham House, a Director of Impatience Earth, Senior Advisor to SYSTEMIQ, an FRSA and Visiting Professor, University of the Arts, London. She was voted Number 2 on the 2020 BBC’s Power List with the judges describing her a “powerhouse of climate justice” and is active in numerous community-based initiatives and social justice movements and Coordinator of the Climate Justice & Just Transition Donor Collaborative Project. From 2013- 2018, she was an Advisor to the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) and has been Deputy Chair of the Expert Group of Advisors to the Climate Vulnerable Forum, a coalition of 48 of the world’s most vulnerable countries, that played a key role in the 2015 Paris Agreement negotiations. She is widely credited with getting the goal of net zero emissions by midcentury into the Paris Agreement through strategic communications and behind the scenes political and diplomatic coalition-building. She has worked with larger developing countries on climate and development policy issues including China, India, South Africa and Brazil. She has extensive experience of private philanthropy, having worked at the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation. She has published numerous books and articles on the intersection of climate change & social justice. She has taught in UK universities since 1995, including as a Visiting Professor at University College London. She stepped back from the world of academia and UN negotiations in 2018 to focus on non- violent civil disobedience and social justice movements challenging capitalism. As a Political Coordinator of Extinction Rebellion for a year, she played a key role in XR April 2019 protests, gluing herself to the Shell HQ offices in London, alongside thousands of other activists. She is a champion of community based action and cofounded Camden Think and Do, where she is experimenting with radical inclusion and concepts of spatial justice by supporting communities create “pop up” actions hubs in high streets and public spaces. She also sits as an expert on various Commissions including Camden Renewal Commission and IPPR’s Commission on Environmental Justice. She serves as trustee or an advisor to a number of organisations working on the intersection of social, racial and ecological justice, including Greenpeace UK and Julie’s Bicycle an organisation working on supporting artists and the cultural sector tackle climate and sustainability.

Rules & processes. Need lots more to make an inclusive world

Writing fairness into the operating codes of the economy

Doing nothing