Professor Raphael J. Heffron is an international expert on climate change, sustainability and just transition public policy issues. Currently, he is Professor and Dean of the College of Law at Abu Dhabi University in the UAE, a world top-250 university (THE). He is a qualified Barrister-at-Law, and a graduate of both Oxford (MSc-Christ Church) and Cambridge (MPhil-Darwin & PhD-Trinity Hall) Universities (UK). He also holds degrees from the University of St. Andrews (MLitt) (UK), and Trinity College Dublin (BA, MA) (Ireland).
His work all has a principal focus on achieving a sustainable and just transition to a low-carbon economy, and combines a mix of governance, management, policy and economics. His work has featured in the Top-2% Stanford-Elsevier Scientist List since 2020 and Top 1% in the Clarvariate ranking. He has published over 220 publications of different types and is the most cited scholar in his field worldwide for energy and just transition law and public policy worldwide (7200+ Scopus/13500+ Googlescholar) with translated work in multiple languages including Chinese, Italian, French, Spanish, Arabic and Persian. Professor Heffron has given just over 220 keynotes or guest lectures in 70 countries worldwide.
Professor Heffron’s work is global, and in particular covers the EU, South-East Asia, Southern Africa, and Latin America. His work has received funding from a variety of sources including the European Union, UK Commonwealth Secretariat, USAID, the Asian Development Bank, African Development Bank, French Regional Government Administration, UK national research councils (the ESRC and the EPSRC), the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (ERA-ACTOM), the British Academy and two European Commission Jean Monnet Professorship 2016-2019 and 2019-2022. His research and policy work has been cited in over 300 policy documents worldwide.
He has given professional research-based advice on public policy issues related to commercial and energy law, taxation, sustainability and just transition issues to the EU, UN, Commonwealth Secretariat, World Bank, and various international thinktanks. More recently, he has worked on policy reports on the energy and climate transition and energy finance for the 54 Member States of the Commonwealth (2021); advised Nigerian Ministries on the energy transition (2019); and Colombian professionals on climate & green finance (2019-23).
Professor Heffron in 2020 was appointed as Senior Counsel at Janson law firm in Brussels (Belgium). He was also selected to the Royal Society of Edinburgh Young Academy of Scotland in 2018. His research and teaching has been recognised by the award of a Jean Monnet Professorship by the European Commission twice in 2016 (-2019) and 2019 (-2022) – on energy and natural resources law, and the just transition policy respectively. His teaching has also been recognised in the UK by becoming a Senior Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy in 2018. In addition, Raphael is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts.
Raphael is also a reviewer for the most recent IPCC Report and the forthcoming IPCC Cities report. He is also the Consulting Editor of the past and current (2018 and 2025) Halsbury’s Laws of England volumes on Energy Law (the leading practitioner energy law series). He is on the Editorial Board of the world leading international energy law and business journal the Journal of World Energy Law and Business (OUP), the legal practitioner journal International Energy Law Review, and interdisciplinary journals of Oxford Open Climate Change and the Journal of Innovation and Knowledge.
Raphael holds or has in the past held the following positions globally: an Associate Researcher, Energy Policy Research Group, University of Cambridge (current), Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, University of Oxford, and Visiting Professor at: Paris-Dauphine University (France), Queen Mary University of London (UK–current), the University of West Indies (Trinidad-based), Javeriana University (Colombia), University of Western Australia (current), University Eduardo Mondlane (Mozambique–current), University of Brawijaja (Indonesia), the ESCP Business School (Paris & London), Kathmandu University (Nepal); and a Visiting Scholar at MIT (USA), University of Sydney (Australia), University of Texas at Austin (USA) and the British Institute for International and Comparative Law (UK).
Professor Raphael J Heffron 