Alex Hanafi

Work

Alex Hanafi is Senior Manager of Multilateral Climate Strategy and a Senior Attorney in EDF’s International Climate Program. In his work at EDF, he coordinates research and advocacy programs designed to promote policies and build institutions that effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions around the globe. 

Within this framework, Alex focuses on emissions cap-and-trade programs, legal issues in the international climate negotiations, and environmental governance. He leads EDF’s advocacy at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), where he works with policy makers to identify and implement high-integrity standards to guide climate policy design, including the use of economic incentives for environmental protection and linkage among international carbon markets. 

Alex’s work also includes research, analysis, and advocacy on effective governance systems for geoengineering research, as part the Solar Radiation Management Governance Initiative.

Background

Prior to joining EDF, Alex was a negotiation advisor and instructor for an international negotiation consulting firm based in Boston, Massachusetts. During private practice in law firms in San Francisco and Washington, D.C., he counseled clients in negotiating complex environmental disputes.

Alex has provided strategic advice and assistance to public interest lawyers and policy advocates from more than 60 countries in their efforts to reform environmental and human rights laws and strengthen public participation in governmental decision making.

His international experience includes over 10 years living and working in Europe, Africa, and Asia. He is a Senior Fellow of the Environmental Leadership Program and a Luce Scholar.

Alex is an honors graduate of Harvard Law School, where he was elected Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Environmental Law Review. He received his undergraduate degree in biology and art history magna cum laude from Duke University, where he was an Angier B. Duke Scholar.