Ms Alexis McGivern
Head of Stakeholder Engagement, Oxford Net Zero, Smith School for Enterprise and the Environment
Alexis McGivern is Head of Stakeholder Engagement and a Research Fellow at Oxford Net Zero. Her work focuses on strengthening the governance, credibility and justice-alignment of corporate net zero commitments, with particular attention to equity and accountability.
About
Alexis McGivern is Head of Stakeholder Engagement and a Research Fellow at Oxford Net Zero. Her work focuses on strengthening the governance, credibility and justice-alignment of corporate net zero commitments, with particular attention to equity and accountability.
Alexis leads the Serviced Emissions Hub, which is a research and engagement initiative helping professional services providers (law firms, consulting firms, ad agencies) take responsibility for the climate impact of their advice and ensure net zero standards better recognise their influence. Alexis is a member of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol's Technical Working Group, contributing to the first revision of the Corporate Standard in over 20 years.
Her work also spans education and capacity-building from youth activists to senior business leaders. She co-created and co-leads the Global Youth Climate Training Programme, which has equipped more than 5,400 young climate activists with a deep understanding of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations. She also co-leads the Oxford Sustainable Business Programme, an executive education initiative for sustainability leaders.
Alexis previously worked at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on marine biodiversity conservation. She completed a dual degree at the University of Oxford as a Pershing Square Scholar, earning an MPhil in Geography and the Environment, focused on the politics of waste incineration and community resistance in the UK, and an MBA at Saïd Business School. She has a background in community organising for refugee rights and asylum seeker integration in Switzerland, where she grew up, and in mutual aid work supporting low-income households in Oxford during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Expertise
- Net zero
- Net zero governance
- Governance
- Youth empowerment
- Justice and equity in net zero (i.e. justice implications of the net zero frame)
- Serviced emissions
- Climate education/environmental education
Selected publications
- Making corporate climate transitions work: business guidance for implementing just and equitable transition plans (2025)
- Development transitions for fossil fuel-producing low and lower–middle income countries in a carbon-constrained world (2024)
- Governing Net Zero: assessing convergence and gaps in the voluntary standards and guidelines landscape (2024)
- Breaking the climate spiral of silence: lessons from a COP26 climate conversations campaign (2023)
- Can ‘Net Zero’ still be an instrument of climate justice? (2023)
- Defining Net Zero for organizations: How do climate criteria align across standards and voluntary initiatives (2022)
- A decision framework for estimating the cost of marine plastic pollution interventions (2022)
- Predicted growth in plastic waste exceeds efforts to mitigate plastic pollution (2020)
Media experience
Alexis McGivern has experience working with the media in print and broadcast. She also has experience blog writing and delivered the TEDx Talk: How to Live a Plastic-Free Life.
Recent media work
- Youth Voices at the Heart of Climate Action: Inside the Global Youth Climate Training Impact Report and Five Young Leaders Funded to Attend COP30 in Belém, Brazil (Smith School News, 2025)
- Oxford Smith School academics feature in new Bodleian portrait series (Smith School News, 2025)
- Expert Comment: Would a ban on fossil fuel advertising usher in a new era of corporate responsibility? (Oxford University News, 2025)
- Finding Net Zero with Integrity: A Climate Chat with Alexis McGivern (Climate Decoded, 2024)
- Serviced emissions: Placing professional services at the heart of Net Zero (Smith School, 2024)
- Want to attend COP28? Here are my five tips to make the most of it (Smith School, 2023)
- Environmental and Climate Justice (interview with Feminist Futures Podcast, 2021)
- Student Spotlight: Alexis McGivern (The Oxford Student, 2020)
Languages
English, FrenchVideos
COP29 Expert Panel Briefing (2024)
TEDx Talk: How to Live a Plastic-Free Life (2017)