Now retired, Robin Guenier has had a long and varied career as a legal adviser, business executive, writer, speaker and business consultant. After twenty years as CEO of various high-tech businesses, he established his consultancy, Guenier Ltd. – focusing on interim management, on-line research and project risk. He was a regular contributor to TV and radio with speaking engagements throughout the world. He holds an MA (Jurisprudence, St John’s College, Oxford) and is a barrister.
Guenier's current focus is on the international politics of climate change, related negotiations and the interpretation of relevant agreements. He has studied the history of global environmentalism from around the 1960s and has published several short essays. With no scientific training, he’s agnostic about climate change science.
In line with the OxCAN launch theme of 'What is the potential of Oxford alumni in tackling the climate crisis?', Guenier argues that the West must change its approach to climate negotiation if there’s to be a realistic prospect of the substantial and urgent GHG emission cuts called for by many scientists. In support of this, he has shown how Western negotiators have lost control of climate negotiations[1] and thereby implicitly accepted the exemption[2] of powerful emerging and OPEC countries such as China, India and Iran from any obligation to reduce their emissions.
[1] https://ipccreport.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/the-west-vs-the-rest-2.1.1.pdf [2] https://ipccreport.files.wordpress.com/2016/08/cop-21-developing-countries-_-2.pdf
Please note that the views expressed in these pieces are solely that of the author's and not of OxCAN.