Chris Hopkins

Chris Hopkins is a Policy Officer with the Sustainability Regulation Observatory (SRO), a core initiative of LSE’s Global School of Sustainability (GSoS). Based within the LSE Law School, his work focuses on comparative assessment of sustainability policy, with a particular focus on green economic policy and just transition frameworks. He brings over a decade of experience working in policy within multi-stakeholder networks, at the interface of global environmental and economic policy.

He was previously Policy Director at the Green Economy Coalition (GEC) based at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) in London. He acted as technical-lead for the Green Economy Trackerglobal benchmarking platform, which provides ongoing civil society assessment of green policy ambition across 50 countries and leading economies. He was also co-facilitator of the Global Research and Action Network for a New Eco-Social Contract (GRAN-ESC), working with UNRISD to bring together 400+ researchers and civil society actors to shape how social contracts could be recalibrated to meet the environmental, social and economic challenges of the 21st century.

His interdisciplinary technical and academic work has bridged creation of design principles for green stimulus and structural reform measures, and the normative grounding of long-term cost-benefit analysis in environmental policy. He has extensive experience working on benchmarking and applied policy implementation, including for natural capital frameworks and valuation, as well as analysis of just transition instruments – such as benefit sharing for transition mineral investment. In addition to early career work as a freelance journalist for The Energy Industry Times & Worldwide Independent Power, Chris also holds Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) degrees from the University of York.

Publications prior to joining the Sustainability Regulation Observatory

[Forthcoming] Benefit Sharing and Just Transition Instruments for the Green Transition: Uganda’s Community Development Agreements as a model to unlock transition mineral investment. (2026) GEC / IIED / IIED Europe policy brief. Co-author

Green Economy Tracker (2020, 2022, 2025, 2026) Technical lead. https://greeneconomytracker.org/

Hopkins C, Goswami G (2023) Fixing the Green Investment and Coherence Gap through Structural Green Transition Policies. T20/G20 Policy brief. Co-author. https://tinyurl.com/GEC-T20

Hopkins C, Greenfield O (2022) Setting a structural agenda for a green economic recovery from COVID-19. Discussion paper June 2022 – GEC, PIGE. Lead author. https://tinyurl.com/PIGE-OECD-green-structural

Buckley L, Hopkins C (2021) Engaging with China's ecological civilisation: A pathway to a green economy?. GEC/IIED policy brief. Reviewer / co-author. https://tinyurl.com/engaging-with-ecocivilisation

Bass S, Steele P, Toulmin C, Greenfield O, Hopkins C, Chung I and Nielsen T (2016) Pro-poor, inclusive green growth: experience and a new agenda. GGGI, IIED and GEC. Co-author. https://www.iied.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/migrate/G04050.pdf

Topi C, Neale C, Manoli D, Hopkins C, Rinaldi R, Barbero J (2016) Decarbonising the EU economy by 2050: the contribution of SMEs to the decarbonisation of the transport sector. GreenEcoNet policy brief. Co-author. https://tinyurl.com/MSME-transport-decarb