Alexis McGivern
About
Alexis McGivern is Net Zero Standards Manager at Oxford Net Zero, working to translate academic research on net zero into actionable insights for the business sector. She works to strengthen the standards landscape to improve the integrity of net zero, including through addressing justice and equity concerns of net zero.
Alexis previously completed a dual degree as a Pershing Square Scholar at the University of Oxford, undertaking an MPhil at the School of Geography and the Environment. Her MPhil looked at the politics of waste incineration and the communities who are resisting the installation of new incinerators in the UK. She also completed an MBA at the Saïd Business School to understand the language and motivations of businesses to create long-lasting change across the stakeholders needed to address the climate emergency.
She is a co-founder of 26,000 Climate Conversations – an Oxford student-led initiative that sought to build support for climate action through interpersonal conversations in the lead-up to the United Nations COP26 conference.
At Oxford, she ran the School of Climate Change, an eight-week course that covers the basics of climate science through to the policy and legal challenges of climate change all the way through to the range of potential solutions. During the pandemic, this course had 2,000 participants.
Outside of Oxford, Alexis does research with the Plastic Pollution Emissions Working Group, an interdisciplinary and international group of scientists researching plastic pollution. She also creates TikToks about climate science in order to make academia more accessible at @climatemadecool.
SOGE Winners at the Vice Chancellor’s Environmental Sustainability Awards 2022
Expertise
- Net zero
- Net zero standards and voluntary initiatives
- Justice and equity in net zero (i.e. justice implications of the net zero frame)
- Understanding climate issues from a business perspective
- Climate education/environmental education
Selected publications
- Setting the Pace: Do net zero criteria align across the landscape of standards and voluntary initiatives?
- Impacts of Plastic Waste Management Strategies (Environmental Reviews, 2022)
- Mainstreaming Climate Change Education in UK Higher Education Institutions (2021)
- "Predicted growth in plastic waste exceeds efforts to mitigate plastic pollution" (co-author, Science, 2020)
- "Pathways for implementation of blue carbon initiatives" (Aquatic Conservation, co-author, 2017, examining policy pathways for blue carbon protections)
Media experience
Alexis McGivern has experience working with the media in print and broadcast, including a recent interview with BBC Radio Oxford. She also has experience blog writing and delivered the TEDx Talk: How to Live a Plastic-Free Life.
Recent media work
- How to create leaders for the climate crisis (Oxford Strategy Review, 2022)
- Environmental and Climate Justice (interview with Feminist Futures Podcast, 2021)
- Plastic Pollution is outpacing our ability to manage it (The Oxford University Politics Blog, 2020)
- Alexis McGivern: Waste Management & the Recycling Industry (interview with Responsible Business Podcast, 2020)
- Student Spotlight: Alexis McGivern (The Oxford Student, 2020)
Languages
English, French