Alex Hanafi
Senior Director, Global Climate Cooperation and Lead Counsel
Work
Alex Hanafi is Senior Director of Global Climate Cooperation and Lead Counsel. 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 global 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 global 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.
Latest pieces
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COP 25: Carbon markets in the spotlight
December 3, 2019
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Carbon markets: Can countries fill in the missing chapter of the Paris rulebook in Bonn?
June 17, 2019
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COP 24: Transparency, ambition and carbon markets on the Paris rulebook agenda in Katowice
December 3, 2018
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7 reasons avoiding double counting of emissions reductions helps countries, and the environment
September 26, 2018
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Once is enough: how climate negotiators can protect the environmental integrity of the Paris Agreement by avoiding double counting
September 5, 2018
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Why the developing world needs to be included in climate engineering research
April 3, 2018
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“Fiji-on-the-Rhine”: Four things to expect from the COP 23 UN climate talks
November 5, 2017
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What happens in Marrakesh now that the Paris Agreement has entered into force?
November 7, 2016
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How a Coalition of Carbon Markets Can Complement the Paris Agreement and Accelerate Deep Reductions in Climate Pollution
May 19, 2016
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7 reasons the Paris Agreement signing actually matters
April 21, 2016