Jacob Werksman

Jacob Werksman has, since 2012, served as Principal Adviser to the Directorate General for Climate Action (DG-CLIMA) of the European Commission, where his work focuses on the international aspects of European climate policy.  He is Head of Delegation for the European Union to the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and advises the Commission on the relationship between climate policy and other areas of international law and policy. He supports the EU Commissioner for Climate Action and the European External Action Service in multilateral negotiations and in strengthening bilateral relationships between the EU, major economies and other international partners.

Werksman is an international lawyer, specializing in international environmental law and international economic law.  Prior joining the Commission, he provided legal and policy advice to developed and developing country governments, NGOs and international institutions in the context of the multilateral negotiations on climate change, biosafety and trade.  He has taught and published widely on the international legal dimensions of climate policy, including on the design of compliance mechanisms, climate finance and on the relationship between carbon markets and international trade and investment agreements.

Werksman is currently visiting professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and has lectured in international environmental and economic law at the masters level at New York University Law School, Georgetown University Law Center, and at the School of Oriental and African Studies and University College at the University of London.  Prior to joining the Commission, he held posts at the World Resources Institute, the Rockefeller Foundation, United Nations Development Programme, and the Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development (FIELD) in London.

Contact: jjv6519@nyu.edu

Research Project

Searching for Opportunities for Trans-Atlantic Cooperation on Climate, Energy, Trade and Industrial Policy in the Current Geopolitical Contex.  In recent years, the EU and US climate, energy, trade and industrial policies were beginning to explore similar pathways.  The new US administration is now clearing parting ways by withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, by characterising action on climate change as an “ideology” opposed to US interests, by scaling back or dismantling many of the climate friendly industrial policies enacted by the US Congress. By contrast, under the EU’s new “Clean Industrial Deal,” the EU will “stay the course” of climate ambition set out in the European Green Deal, and work to sustain and improve rules-based trade, including through a reformed and strengthened World Trade Organization (WTO).  However, early debates on the amendment of the European Climate Law and on the design of the Clean Industrial Deal, have included voices within the EU calling for a roll back on climate ambition, for putting in place protectionist trade measures, and have pointed to the positions of the new US Administration to justify these moves. It is crucial, in this context, to identify a more persuasive and durable narrative (expressed as set of policy objectives, legal principles and institutional arrangements) as to how both societies can better promote their values and protect their interests by continuing on a pathway towards decarbonization, while pursuing free and fairer global trade.  This will include designing policies that ensure the continued competitiveness of their energy intensive and clean technology industries, and that address growing geo-economic risks related to unfair trade practices and insecure supply chains. This project will explore how US-based academics and think-tanks that are advising US policy makers (of past, current and future administrations) view these challenges, and whether the inevitable near-term divergence of EU and US climate, energy, trade and industrial policies could reveal why it is not in the US interests to deviate entirely from a clean energy pathway or to abandon fundamental principles of fair trade.