Professor Thomas Hale
About
Professor Thomas Hale’s research explores how we can manage transnational problems effectively and fairly. He seeks to explain how political institutions evolve - or not - to face the challenges raised by globalization and interdependence, with a particular emphasis on environmental, economic, and health issues.
As COP26 Fellow, Professor Hale is supporting international negotiations in the run-up to the conference. He is also the chair of the Expert Peer Review Group for the UN’s Race to Zero, the flagship COP26 campaign that engages with cities, regions, businesses, and investors in a drive for a low carbon recovery.
Professor Hale leads the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker, the most-used global dataset tracking government policies on COVID-19.
He holds a PhD in Politics from Princeton University, a masters degree in Global Politics from the London School of Economics, and an AB in public policy from Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs. A US national, Professor Hale has studied and worked in Argentina, China, and Europe.
His books include Beyond Gridlock (Polity 2017), Between Interests and Law: The Politics of Transnational Commercial Disputes (Cambridge 2015), Transnational Climate Change Governance (Cambridge 2014), and Gridlock: Why Global Cooperation Is Failing when We Need It Most (Polity 2013).
Expertise
- Climate change: international negotiations and "bottom up" actions by cities, companies, and others
- How the rule of law matters for global commerce
- Environmental issues in China
- China's engagement in the global economy
- Evolution of global governance
- Gridlock in multilateral institutions
Selected publications
- Taking stock: A global assessment of net zero targets (2021)
- Variation in government responses to COVID-19 (2021)
- ‘All in’ climate diplomacy: How a Biden-Harris administration can leverage city, state, business, and community climate action (2020)
- Sub- and non-state climate action: a framework to assess progress, implementation and impact (2020)
- The “contact budget”: a climate metaphor to make sense of COVID-19 restrictions (2020)
- The Oxford Principles for Net Zero Aligned Carbon Offsetting (2020)
- The rule of law in the global economy: Explaining intergovernmental backing for private commercial tribunals (2014)
- Investing in reform: A new bond could beat our addiction to fossil fuel subsidies (2014)
Recent media work
- Net Zero: Despite the Greenwash, It’s Vital for Tackling Climate Change (Global Citizen, 2021)
- As Britain Unlocks, Outdoor Pints Are Pure Joy (The New York Times, 2021)
- Companies drag heels on road to reaching net zero (The Times, 2021)
- Only Venezuela and Lebanon have imposed stricter lockdown (The Times, 2021)
- Oil companies aren’t actually going green — but some are heading there faster than others (The Washington Post, 2020)
- What Donald Trump's election means for climate change, the Paris Agreement and our planet (Mirror, 2016)
- Reasons to be optimistic about the legacy of 2016 (Post Magazine, 2016)
Languages
English, fluent Spanish, functional Mandarin