European Climate Change Director

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About E3G
Founded in 2004 by senior members of the UK government, E3G’s mission is to accelerate the global transition to sustainable development. E3G’s current main focus is on climate change by working on a range of resource, security and economic issues.

E3G tackles the political barriers to change by building cross-sectoral coalitions to achieve carefully defined outcomes, chosen for their capacity to leverage change towards a sustainable low carbon economy and climate resilient societies.

E3G is a conscious attempt to build a new type of organisation which can help drive change inside existing global frameworks at a rate consistent with preserving critical ecological limits

E3G currently has offices in London, Brussels, Berlin and Washington DC and a regular presence in Beijing

About the Role
To deliver global climate security, and to keep average global temperature rises below 2°C, effective incentives are needed to drive the transformation to a global low carbon economy over the next 50 years. Europe is the first major economy to commit to this scale of transformation, and will thus drive much of the necessary political, technological, policy and social innovation needed to deliver the global transformation.

E3G is committed to helping accelerate Europe’s path-finding role in developing the low carbon economy. E3G has been working in this area since 2004 with notable successes including helping to reframe EU political debates around energy and climate security, securing EU funding for a programme of CCS demonstration plants, being a core partner in the landmark Roadmap 2050 study and driving the establishment of a UK Green Investment Bank.

E3G has recently secured funding for the next five years to accelerate decarbonisation of the EU power sector. E3G is also expanding its European work on low carbon finance, clean infrastructure, the green economy and research and development.

In the light of this development E3G is now searching for a European Director to manage its climate and energy activities across the EU.

Reporting to E3G’s Chief Executive Nick Mabey, the successful candidate will be responsible for delivering E3G’s ambitious climate change and energy objectives in Europe. The programme of work covered by this post currently consists of a team of eight people and a budget of over €500K.

E3G positions itself to play a unique role in European processes, working with and complementing the large number of other organisations in this space. Over the past 5 years E3G has developed an innovative working model that focuses on identifying strategic opportunities for change, brokering coalitions of action between governments, business and civil society to deliver game changing outcomes, and developing innovative solutions to organisational and policy challenges.

Specific tasks will involve:

> Leading the development of a structured strategic understanding of European energy and climate change politics and policy, and identifying key opportunities for action.

> Acting as the leading E3G interlocutor on domestic European climate change and energy policy with political actors, policy makers and the media.

> Directing the design and building of international, cross-sectoral coalitions to achieve a small number of high impact climate change policy outcomes.

> Building and managing E3G project teams to deliver these outcomes and coalitions.

> Acting as a thought leader – inside and outside E3G – on transition to a global carbon, climate resilient economy;

> Helping shape the evolution and growth of E3G as part of the E3G Management Team, including raising project and core financing.

The Europe Director will work in close collaboration with E3G’s other outward-facing programmes on climate diplomacy, climate and resource security, and low carbon development.

E3G’s European Climate Change Programme
The successful candidate will be responsible for directing and managing delivery across E3G’s established set of work streams on European decarbonisation, as well as identifying and developing new high impact areas. Current work streams are:

> Elaborating and animating a coherent EU energy and climate security strategy: building on the existing EU energy and climate security package to deepen understanding and support in Europe for a compelling and coherent approach to delivering European energy goals and the transformation to a low carbon economy.

> Decarbonisation of the European Power Sector: developing and delivering broad support for the strategic case for rapid decarbonisation of the EU power sector by the mid-2030s. Delivering specific policy outcomes on electricity market reform, supergrid investment (with a focus on the North Sea Grid) and smart grid RD&D and deployment.

> European Low Carbon Finance: building on E3G’s successful work in creating a UK Green Investment Bank to target specific high leverage reforms to European financing of low carbon investment at Member State and European (EIB/EBRD) levels.

> European Green Economy: developing a compelling analytical case for, and a policy programme to deliver, the economic, energy security and competitiveness benefits of an accelerated move to a low carbon, resilient and resource efficient economy in the EU.

> Work with EU Political, Business and Civil Society Coalitions: developing E3G’s relationships with key political, business and civil society coalitions; including forming strategic advisory relationships with a small number of highly aligned groups

Experience
The European Director will:

> be committed to achieving E3G’s overall objectives, and to working in an innovative and entrepreneurial manner. She/he will have strong strategic and political understanding, will prioritise achieving outcomes over running activities, and be capable of inspiring and facilitating action by others;

> have 10-15 years of professional experience, perhaps more, as an acknowledged high flyer with a significant record of achievements. She/he will have been involved in complex and politically sensitive projects, built small teams, and managed budgets;

> have a broad experience of energy issues, with an emphasis on climate change, security, investment and technology processes. Ideally, have experience of building consensus in Europe around sensitive issues, creating and facilitating dialogue and agreement;

> be used to operating internationally, with a high degree of cultural sensitivity. Experience and strong personal networks in Europe would be an advantage;

> have strong written and spoken English, and good knowledge of at least one other European language;

> be able to operate confidently both at high and “expert” level, in the worlds of politics, government, business, finance, the media, and civil society.

Terms
This position is programmed for five years on a renewable one year contract.

E3G is currently based in London, Brussels and Berlin. This position would ideally be based in Brussels but for exceptional candidates other E3G locations might be considered.

E3G aims to offer a competitive salary, including pension contributions, which is commensurate to the high level of experience and performance expected from this position.

Closing date for applications is 5pm BST, July 22, 2011. Interested candidates should submit a current CV (including two referees) and a covering letter explaining their interest in the position to Meera.Shah@e3g.org (Reference: DevNetJobs.org). Interviews will take place over August 2011.