E3G

A year in review: E3G in 2006

By Martin Rands

Summer – big moves underway

When Margaret Beckett moved to the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in May 2006 she made Climate Change a new strategic priority for the department. John Ashton, erstwhile Chief Executive of E3G, had advised Margaret Beckett during her tenure at DEFRA, and was now invitated to take on a new role to support her work as Foreign Secretary. John was duly seconded to his new position as Special Representative for Climate Change (therefore becoming a re-captured diplomat, following his extremely productive time as an escaped diplomat).

Given E3G’s obsessive focus on outcomes, John’s move to the FCO made sense: his new position as the world’s most senior Climate Change diplomat will help global efforts to react more quickly to the threat of climate insecurity. Equally, his move was made possible as Nick Mabey was on hand to take on the role of E3G Chief Executive. 

We’re pleased to say that John retains his position as a non-executive director of E3G, notwithstanding a compressed diary that sees him apparently circumnavigating the globe on a monthly basis, and we offer him our thanks for his insightful and timely input.

Autumn – yet more arrivals

These changes meant that we needed to recruit someone to step into John’s shoes and lead our programme on Climate and Energy Security. It was no easy task to find the right person but perseverance paid off and we were truly delighted to welcome Jennifer Morgan to the team in October. Jennifer’s credentials appear elsewhere on the E3G website, but suffice to say here that it’s impossible to imagine a better candidate to carry on the E3G approach of working across sectors to develop new coalitions able to deliver change. 

Jennifer was immediately in action for E3G – she prepared the Civil Society paper for the G8 Gleneagles Dialogue in Mexico; was in China to discuss options for fast-tracking Carbon Capture and Storage technology; and then headed to Nairobi to participate in the UN Climate Change conference.

Before Jennifer’s arrival, we had already welcomed to the E3G stable another thoroughbred in the guise of Shane Tomlinson. A former colleague of Nick’s from the PMSU, Shane hit the ground running to lead a pair of analytical projects for DFID, freeing up some of Nick’s time to respond to the many invitations he was receiving to speak at conferences and events in Europe and America.

Back to the subject of E3G babies, September heralded the arrival of another, when Nick and Malini were presented with a brother for Leyla, young Alexander Varun Mabey.

Another major development during the autumn was the build and launch of the new E3G website. Much more comprehensive, subtly designed and chock full of good stuff it will be a core element in the dissemination of our future analysis and comment. Thanks are due to Chris Littlecott and our redoubtable web designer Seb Neerman for the long hours put into setting us up for our entrance into the blogosphere.

While on the subject of IT, we also extend our thanks to David Sheales, IT consultant extraordinaire, who continues to race to our aid when the computator thingys turn themselves off unexpectedly, or the wireless signal whatnots fall off!