This blog post was published under the 1997 to 2010 Labour government

Dominic Meiklejohn

Part of UK in USA [New York]

1st April 2010 New York, USA

Climate and New Jersey

Guest blog by Jane Kozinski, Senior Policy Adviser on Climate Change

In his last blog post, Dominic mentioned two of my favourite subjects – “climate” and New Jersey (my home state).  So, I felt inspired to write in.

Last week Sir Alan Collins and I visited Rutgers University’s Center for European Studies where we participated in a conference on European Climate Policy.  Conference participants learned about low-carbon policies in Europe and examined how such policies might be applied in the United States.  Sir Alan gave the keynote address and stressed the need to ensure that climate mitigation policies are designed to promote economic growth.  Based on the lengthy Q&A session that followed, there is a strong appetite in the U.S. for information on bold and innovative climate policy.  The UK’s policies set a strong example.

I led a panel discussion on Lessons Learned from the European Union’s Emissions Trading System (ETS).  Based on his economic analysis of the ETS, panelist Denny Ellerman (MIT) concluded that the ETS has been successful in achieving emissions reductions at relatively low economic cost and that it is a good model for the U.S.  Bruce Misrach (Rutgers) examined the integration of global emissions markets.  And Michael Mehling (Ecologic Institute) spoke about the fundamental design features of the ETS and the future of the program.  Conference participants were very interested in cap/trade design mechanisms to prevent “leakage” (loss of industrial competitiveness to countries with less stringent regulation) and the extent to which the government should regulate carbon markets.

The conference also featured presentations on climate policies in France, Netherlands and Germany.  My hat is off to Rutgers for convening this meeting of leading climate researchers, policymakers and stakeholders.

About Dominic Meiklejohn

I was born in Woking, outside London, in 1967 and attended Merton College, Oxford University, graduating in Politics, Philosophy and Economics. After university, I worked for HM Customs and Excise…

I was born in Woking, outside London, in 1967 and attended Merton College, Oxford University, graduating in Politics, Philosophy and Economics.

After university, I worked for HM Customs and Excise before joining the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1990. After working for the European Community Department, I learned Polish and began a posting at the British Embassy Warsaw, where I headed the British Know How Fund for Poland (1993-96). In 1997, I worked for the OSCE Mission in Albania, before heading up the India team in the South Asian Department of the FCO. In 2000, I was posted as First Secretary to the British Embassy Warsaw, with a particular focus on European Union issues in the run-up to Poland’s accession to the EU. In 2003, I returned to the UK as Deputy Head of the Environment Policy Department. From 2004-2005, I led the FCO’s Knowledge Management Programme. During this period, I led two deployments of the FCO’s Consular Rapid Deployment Team– to Sri Lanka, after the tsunami in 2004 and to Pakistan, after the earthquake in 2005. From 2006-2007, I served as Deputy Consul-General, Basra, Iraq. From June 2007 I worked with the FCO’s Change Unit.

I took up my current appointment on 22 January 2008. My wife Joanne and I are the proud parents of Olivia. Outside of the office, I cycle around Manhattan, play soccer (football) and, when parenting duties allow, enjoy the cultural riches offered by New York. I try hard to understand baseball.

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