The Team
The Energy & Climate intelligence Unit is an independent non-profit that supports informed debate on energy and climate change.
Peter Chalkley joined the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit from communications consultancy Fishburn. He has built up 10 years of experience advising a broad range of corporate and public sector clients on communications strategy, media relations and stakeholder engagement.
During this time he has worked across a variety of sectors and issues, from communicating the facts around employing members of the Reserve Forces to raising public awareness of key health issues.

Peter Chalkley
Director
Sepi joined ECIU in October 2018 as Deputy Director (Strategy). She brings over a decade of experience engaging closely with political and policy processes in the UK and internationally, and across Government, private and civil society sectors.
Prior to joining ECIU, she led the UK programme at climate change think tank, E3G; worked as an adviser to organisations as diverse as investment management firms and charities; and spent 7 years as a Whitehall official, serving under Conservative, Lib Dem and Labour ministers and across a variety of departments, including the Department of Energy and Climate Change.
She also spent two years as Visiting Academic at King’s College London, Faculty of Law and has worked as Legal Researcher to former Court of Appeal judge, Sir Stephen Sedley.
Sepi holds an LLM from McGill University and an LLB from King’s College London. She is a Board Member of UK100 and sits as a Co-Optee on the JRCT Sustainable Futures Committee.
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Sepi Golzari-Munro
Acting Director
Before joining ECIU, George worked as a media relations manager for WWF-UK, covering a range of issues including energy and climate change as well as food, transport, finance and economy, sustainable business and WWF’s corporate partnerships. He was also seconded to WWF’s Global Climate and Energy Initiative (GCEI), and was media lead for their recent global campaign, Seize Your Power. Prior to WWF, George worked for communications consultancy Luther Pendragon, and before that in the parliamentary office of Bath MP Don Foster, where he was employed after completing a masters in politics at York University.
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George Smeeton
Head of Communications
Kathy joined ECIU in February 2020 after completing her Masters in Science Communication at Imperial College London. Whilst studying, Kathy was involved in producing podcasts for I,SCIENCE and editing their magazine. Kathy has completed other internships at the Royal Institution and IBM. Prior to her Masters, she studied sociology at the University of Bath.
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Kathy Grenville
Communications Officer
Simon joined the ECIU in September 2021, moving from the House of Lords where he worked as Clerk to the Science and Technology Select Committee and previously to the Joint Committee on Human Rights.
From 2013 to 2017, he worked for the Energy Research Partnership, a public-private joint venture that seeks to identify strategic issues affecting the development and depolyment of low-carbon technologies.
From 2007 to 2013, he held a number of roles at Ofgem, including in environmental policy and large-scale transmission investments. He has a PhD in Physics from the University of St Andrews.
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Dr Simon Cran-McGreehin
Head of Analysis
Alasdair joined ECIU (initially supporting the work of the Climate Assembly UK) after having built up over five years’ experience of working in Parliament, most recently for former Environment Minister Richard Benyon.
Prior to that he has worked in different capacities for three other MPs and for a start-up tech firm following his graduation from the University of Birmingham.
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Alasdair Johnstone
Parliamentary Engagement Officer
Zoe joined ECIU in June 2020 as Operations and Finance Manager.
A chartered accountant, she brings over 25 years of experience within industry and non-profit organisations, in sectors ranging from windfarm and property development to technology and healthcare services.
She holds a MSc in Environmental Technology from Imperial College London, as part of which she researched the market impact of the energy certification of commercial buildings. She studied economics at the University of Manchester.
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Zoe Kaplan
Finance and Operations Manager
John manages ECIU's Net Zero Tracker and specialises in communicating climate science and policy to the public.
A New Zealand qualified lawyer, John runs the e-nvironmentalist, a climate communication blog; Consult Climate, a sustainability consultancy; and Kiwis in Climate, a non-partisan group of international New Zealanders involved in climate and related fields.
He holds a Master of Laws in policy and earth science from UCL, and undergraduate degrees in history and law from the University of Otago.
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John Lang
Net Zero Tracker Lead
Patricia specialises in research and policy change digital marketing and communications, with a focus on human rights and social justice. Her background is in climate change, development; humanitarian aid; and children and young people. She developed a participatory communications technique to better involve service users in charity campaigns, and ran a social enterprise for several years to support charities with digital engagement.
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Patricia Curmi
Digital Strategist
Before joining the ECIU in April 2020, Jess worked for Ecuity Consulting LLP where she specialised in energy policy and communications and the Sustainable Energy Association where she held a policy advisor role particularly for energy efficiency and low carbon heating. She holds a BSc in Geological Sciences from the University of Leeds and MSc in Oceanography from the University of Southampton.
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Jess Ralston
Analyst
Gareth joined ECIU in March 2021 from WWF-UK, where he was Head of Climate Change for just over four years. Working to influence government and business, he led a team of climate specialists working on UK policy, advocacy and campaigning to tackle climate change and restore nature. He also worked as part of WWF’s global Climate and Energy Practice network to influence UNFCCC processes and decision-making.
Before WWF, Gareth worked for the UK government for 15 years across various policy portfolios, as well as leading operational delivery teams, and working directly for Ministers. Most recently he led a team in the Department for Energy and Climate Change which worked on subsidy and support to install and operate renewable electricity infrastructure in the UK.

Gareth Redmond-King
COP26 Lead
Matt joined ECIU in March 2021, after working for three years in the Government Affairs team at the National Trust. There, he worked with colleagues to develop and implement a new climate change programme, to increase understanding of the role of land, farming, and nature in reducing the Trust's emissions, and to set a new organisational target for net zero by 2030. He has also chaired and co-chaired sector groups on climate and land, nature and wellbeing, and peatlands.
Matt has been a climate change and environmental policy specialist for almost ten years, having previously worked in the climate change team at the RSPB as lead specialist on fracking, bioenergy, and aviation. He began his career working on RSPB nature reserves on the Suffolk coast. His work has taken him to the peat-swamp forests of Indonesia, where he was Communications Manager of a primate research organisation tracking gibbons and orangutans through the jungle, and to the southeast of the US to visit old growth forests. Matt holds a degree in English and French from the University of Oxford and in Development Studies from the University of Cambridge.

Matt Williams
Climate and Land Programme Lead
Richard Black was Director of ECIU 2014-2020 and is now a Senior Associate focussing on the international agenda. Richard's background is in journalism and broadcasting, having joined BBC World Service in 1985 as a studio manager following his Cambridge science degree. He subsequently worked for BBC World Service as producer and presenter on science, current affairs, health and sport programmes, and as Science Correspondent, and also ran an independent radio production company specialising in health and medicine. As BBC Environment Correspondent, his reporting assignments included many UN summits including five UNFCCC meetings and Rio+20. He reported from the field on issues such as carbon capture and storage, nuclear power, amphibian conservation, whaling, forestry, aquaculture and earthquake prediction. From 2012 Richard was Director of Communications for the Global Ocean Commission prior to setting up ECIU. In 2018 he wrote 'Denied: The Rise and Fall of Climate Contrarianism', the only book about the UK's climate contrarian elite, its influence and its retreat. Richard is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London, and frequently contributes to UK broadcast programmes and news media, including taking part in the BBC's 'Climate Change: The Facts' presented by Sir David Attenborough

Richard Black
Senior Associate