The Rt Hon Simon Upton has been appointed Director of the OECD’s Environment Directorate in Paris.
As Director, Mr Upton will steer the OECD’s work on environment policy and enhance its strategic impact at global, regional and national levels. The Directorate is responsible for country reviews, analysis of environmental policies and regulations and works with member countries of the OECD as well as developing nations.
“Essentially, it’s a major clearing house for environmental policy analysis. As well as working with member countries, we also work with the major developing countries including China, India, Brazil, Indonesia and South Africa,” he says.
The OECD has led important analytical work on the full range of environmental policy issues including climate change, chemical safety, waste and energy.
“I am very pleased to be able to work with the pre-eminent inter-governmental agency charged with making practical sense of the relationship between the economy and the environment. It would be hard to find a more authoritative overview than the OECD’s recent Environmental Outlook to 2030.”
Mr Upton was Minister for the Environment between 1990-91 and again between 1993 and 1999. When he retired from Parliament in 2001, Mr Upton devoted much of his time to chairing the
OECD Round Table on Sustainable Development, based in Paris.
When he returned to New Zealand in 2006 he joined PWC as an adviser and is also a Visiting Fellow with the University of Otago School of Business.
He is a director of Holcim (NZ) Ltd and a member of the advisory board to the Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction. He is also a board member of the International Research Institute for Climate Prediction at Columbia University, New York.
Mr Upton takes up his new appointment in Paris on 1 April.
