Michael Jacobs is Professor of Political Economy at the University of Sheffield. An environmental economist, his research and writing focus principally on post-financial crisis economic theory and policy, and on climate change and environmental politics.

From 2004 to 2010 he was a member of the Council of Economic Advisers at the UK Treasury and then Special Adviser to the UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, responsible for energy, environmental and climate policy.

From 2010 to 2015 he worked with the French and UK governments, the UN Secretary General and various civil society organisations to help achieve what became the Paris Climate Agreement.

From 2016-18 Michael was Director of the IPPR Commission on Economic Justice, a two-year enquiry into the UK economy. He was principal author of its final report Prosperity and Justice: A Plan for the New Economy (2018).

In 2019 Michael co-founded a small non-profit organization, the Economic Change Unit, to help strengthen progressive economic arguments and campaigns for a fair, sustainable and resilient economy.

Michael’s books include The Green Economy: Environment, Sustainable Development and the Politics of the Future (Pluto Press, 1991), Greening the Millennium? The New Politics of the Environment (ed, Blackwell, 1997) and Rethinking Capitalism: Economics and Policy for Sustainable and Inclusive Growth (2016).