ENERGY VISIONS SERIES: EU-China: are they the leading partnership to fight climate change?

Miguel Arias Cañete is the European commissioner for climate action and energy, a position he has held since November 1, 2014. Before that he was elected as a member of the European Parliament (MEP) in May 2014 as a member for the Spanish Partido Popular party, part of the European People’s Party (EPP). He also was a MEP from 1986 to 1999 where he was the chair of the Fisheries Committee and a member of the Regional Policy Committee. He served as Spanish Minister for Agriculture, Food and Environment on two occasions, from 2000 to 2004 and then from 2012 to 2014. He was appointed spanish executive secretary for economic and employment affairs from 2004 to 2008. He worked as a public prosecutor and law professor from 1975 to 1982. Cañete holds a law degree from the University Complutense in Madrid.

Jo Leinen is a German MEP for the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, part of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) political group. He was elected to the European Parliament in 1999. He sits on the European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) and is the Coordinator/Spokesperson of the S&D-Group in the Constitutional Affairs Committee (AFCO). Leinen served as Vice President of the European Movement International from 2003 to 2011, before becoming its President in November 2011. He took part in the Convention for the Elaboration of a Charter of Fundamental Rights for the EU. After being President of the Union of European Federalists (UEF), from 1997 to 2005, he was appointed the organization's Honorary President. Previously, Leinen was Minister for the Environment in the State Government of Saarland, Germany from 1985 to 1994. He has a MA from College of Europe and a LL.B. in Law and Economics from the University of Saarbrucken and Bonn.

Gary Lewis is the Director of Policy and Programme at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), a position he has held since January 2018. Before that, Lewis worked in UN field assignments from 1987 to 2018. He served as UN Resident Coordinator and UN Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative in the Islamic Republic of Iran. In Iran, he worked on restoring the depleted water levels in Lake Urmia and countering sand and dust storms that affects vast swathes of the planet. He also focused on elevating the importance of environmental security particularly through social media. Prior to moving to Iran, he joined the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and worked in Pakistan, Afghanistan, South Africa, India, and Thailand. Lewis started his career in 1987 as a National Officer with the UN Development Programme in Barbados. He holds an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics and a BA in Political Science from Queen’s University in Canada.

Lailai Li has been the China Country Director of the World Resources Institute (WRI) China since 2012. She is responsible for formulating, leading, and implementing WRI’s vision and strategy in China. She also manages relationships and guides its work to advance China’s environmental and sustainability goals. Her recent work and research include economics of climate change in China and China’s ecosystem services and management strategy. Before that, she served as Deputy Director at the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) from 2006 to 2012 and as Director of SEI Asia Centre. Previously, she was Deputy Director of China Urban Sustainable Transport Research Centre based in Beijing and directed the LEAD-China program for 10 years, a worldwide network of new generation leadership in the environment and development arena. Li received her Post-Doctoral Fellow at Peking University, in Beijing, and received her PhD and MA from the University of Pittsburgh, in the United States.

Rønnaug Sægrov Mysterud has been Convernor in the Energy & Climate Change’s Working Group at the European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT) since 2017. She has also been Vice President and Head of EU Affairs at Hydro, an aluminum company with 35,000 employees in 40 countries, since 2016. She held several positions since she joined Hydro as a Hydrologist in 1996: she served as Head of Physical Market Organization from 2013 to 2016, Head of Market Analysis from 2010 to 2013 and Chief Analyst for Energy Markets from 2007 to 2010. She was Power Market Analysis Manager from 2004 to 2007 and Power Market Trader from 2002 to 2004. Before that, she worked at the Norwegian Water Resources Directorate from 1996 to 1997. She has a certificate in Project Management from the Norwegian Business School and a degree in Glaciology, Hydrology, Geography, Mathematics and Statistics from the University of Oslo.