At the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI), we work at the highest levels of government to help leaders go further and faster to make their citizens’ lives better. Moving the dial on the great global challenges of our time requires engaged, incentivised, focused, and motivated leaders. When political leadership is relentlessly deployed, at the highest levels, incredible things can be achieved.

Using our distinctive expertise and global outlook and guided by the unique insights and perspective of our Executive Chairman Sir Tony Blair, our dedicated experts and embedded teams advise governments all over the world in strategy, policy, and delivery, underpinned by technology.

Job Introduction

Our new Global Client Solutions team is at the heart of how we define “what we do” and then distribute the best of the Institute and our networks to global leaders through our country advisory teams. As a centre of excellence, Global Client Solutions is comprised of our centrally situated global and regional experts – functional and sectoral. Our experts provide valuable counsel, technical support, thought partnership, strategy, and surge capacity and lead the development and evolution of our solutions, methods, and offers in the service of our partner governments.

Developing sustainable energy systems and mitigating and adapting to climate change are priorities for many of the leaders we support. We are strengthening the Energy and Climate pillar and anchor team within Global Client Solutions and hiring a Senior Advisor, Carbon Markets and Climate Finance, to contribute to our Energy and Climate offer and provide practical support to our client governments across Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East to leverage carbon markets, both voluntary and compliance, and secure climate finance to support their policy and investment priorities.

We are also recruiting senior advisors in Climate Policy and Delivery, and the Energy Transition such that we can present a comprehensive climate offer to our government partners. You will work closely with the Institute’s Investment Director and Country and Regional Directors, as well as senior advisors in relevant sectors such as Agriculture or Health. You will report to the Director, Energy and Climate and lead the development of our growing Carbon Markets and Climate Finance offer. Key aspects will include practical support to governments to:

• Understand and then capitalise on the opportunities presented by voluntary and compliance carbon markets, including identifying the institutional and regulatory preconditions to trade both domestically and internationally
• Leverage carbon markets to fund mitigation projects such as carbon sequestration, the accelerated decommissioning of fossil fuel projects and renewable investments, particularly in lower- and middle-income economies
• Understand, identify, and advance opportunities to secure climate finance, for example through the Green Climate and Climate Investment Funds, the issuance of climate bonds or through innovative instruments such as debt for climate swaps
• In partnership with our investment team, develop and package a pipeline of climate projects and then engage with potential funders and markets to secure finance
• Enter into effective partnerships and coalitions with countries and institutions in areas of mutual interest such as integrating carbon markets, supporting coalitions of rainforest states, or helping implement commitments from companies and higher income countries make climate investments in lower income countries
• Engage in and influence the global policy debate on climate finance

Working across the wider energy and climate community of practice and the Strategic Partnerships and Initiatives team, you will put in place partnerships with organisations that can complement our offer to Governments and help us scale our work such as climate funds, carbon market initiatives, and networks of concessional and private financiers.

Please note, that if you are applying for Athens or Nairobi it is essential to have an existing right to work.

Key Responsibilities

This is a senior role within TBI and will be held by an exceptional candidate with deep and extensive experience in government advisory, carbon markets, climate finance and engagement at senior political levels of government.

Key responsibilities will include:

Offer development and thought leadership

• Lead the development and evolution of TBI’s Carbon Markets and Climate Finance offer which defines our approach to supporting countries to better understand and capitalise on the opportunities presented by advances in Carbon Markets and Climate Finance
• Identify opportunities for our partner Governments enter into effective coalitions with other Governments to advance mutual climate finance / carbon market objectives such as catalysing carbon markets
• Develop internal frameworks, guides, tools, playbooks, and documents which effectively capture our offer and solutions

Technical leadership and expert support

• Be TBI advisory’s focal person on Carbon Markets and Climate Finance
• Generate cohesion across our Carbon Markets and Climate Finance advisory work, capture lessons learned, and develop best practices to inform future efforts, working closely with the other Global Client Solutions experts and sectoral leads
• Provide hands-on technical input and thought partnership to country teams in the scoping, design, and delivery of their support to Carbon Markets and Climate Finance, generating creative solutions, and framing them in a compelling way
• Support country directors and teams to understand Carbon Markets and Climate Finance opportunities and incorporate into TBI country strategies in response to government demand
• Quality Assure, support and troubleshoot the implementation of our Carbon Markets and Climate Finance work, engaging collaboratively to ensure impact and that country teams can access the best of the Institute to support their work.
• Develop, and quality assure high-calibre external facing proposal documents and deliverables working with country teams
• Support country teams to maintain effective and trusted government relationships, essential to effectively channeling our support
• Provide expert input to country teams as needed with government counterparts, e.g. joining and leading workshops as an expert. Provide ongoing support to resolve strategic questions as they emerge during implementation

External engagement and partnerships

• Develop and enhance our network, relationships, and partnership with partners who can complement our offer to government such as financiers, policy makers, and carbon market initiatives
• Support our partner countries to enter into effective coalitions with other countries on areas of mutual interest
• Represent TBI at a senior level in external conversations, forums, and partnerships
• Lead engagements with existing and future strategic partners on Carbon Markets and Climate Finance Initiatives
• With the Strategic Partnerships and Initiatives team, support joint strategy and partnership governance, escalating challenges when needed
• Support joint opportunity development across the institute
• Engage with relevant external stakeholders such as other not-for-profit organisations, donors, media, suppliers, and agencies

Person Specification

As a senior advisor we are looking for a global expert who can engage with and support governments at the highest level. We are looking for an experienced candidate:

• With a substantial experience across the areas below:
• Carbon markets across multiple geographies and jurisdictions
• Engagement with climate funds such as the Green Climate Fund and Climate Investment Funds
• Securing climate finance for adaptation, sequestration and renewable projects in developing countries
• Engaging with Senior Government decision makers on issues of strategy and policy around carbon markets and climate finance
• Who is considered an expert and thought leader in carbon markets and climate finance with an extensive network of relationships
• With experience and understanding of relevant aspects of the UNFCCC COP process
• Who is strategic, entrepreneurial, pragmatically optimistic and can challenge the status-quo and develop plans for successful delivery of challenging, ambitious objectives
• With outstanding management and strategy skills — able to set strategic direction, inspire teams to collaboratively achieve exceptional objectives, and not afraid to be hands-on to achieve results
• With a strong consulting toolkit enabling you to explain complex topics in simple terms, develop polished client-facing deliverables, and helpful frameworks and tools to bring scale to your expert advice to teams
• Who has a record of accomplishment cultivating and maintaining strategic alliances and partnerships across public, social, and private sector organisations
• Who is a skilled communicator and influencer, from executive office level through to technical level, is adept at speaking to senior leadership
• Adept at navigating ambiguous environments and is comfortable in a rapid growth environment and at managing up and beyond hierarchy
• Who is comfortable speaking in public forums and representing the institute on the global stage
• Who has worked or consulted in a range developing and emerging economies and is sensitive to a diverse range of cultural and regional norms, and fosters a positive spirit of collaboration
• Who commits to business objectives and pulls out the stops to make sure they are always met
• Comfortable to travel about 20- 30% of the time to global locations
• Fluency in English is required with proficiency in an additional language an advantage