John Barry is Professor of Green Political Economy in the School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics at Queens University Belfast. His areas of research include green moral and political theory; green, post-growth and heterodox political economy; the politics, policy and political economy of climate breakdown and low carbon energy transitions; normative aspects of environmental and sustainable development politics and policy; action and engaged research; the greening of citizenship and civic republicanism. His books include, Rethinking Green Politics: Nature, Virtue and Progress (1999); Environment and Social Theory, 2nd edition, (2007); and Citizenship, Sustainability and Environmental Research (2000). His co-edited books include The International Encyclopaedia of Environmental Politics (2001), Sustaining Liberal Democracy (2002); Europe, Globalisation and Sustainability (2004), The Nation-State and the Global Ecological Crisis (2005), Contemporary Environmental Politics (2006), Global Ecological Politics ((2011), and Environmental Philosophy: The Art of Living in a World of Limits (2013). His latest book is The Politics of Actually Existing Unsustainability: Human Flourishing in a Climate-Changed, Carbon-Constrained World (2012, Oxford University Press) - https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-politics-of-actually-existing-unsustainability-9780199695393?cc=gb&lang=en& He is currently working on a book provisionally entitled ‘The Story of Unsustainable Growth: Understanding Economic Growth as Ideology, Myth and Religion’. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280489369_What's_the_Story_with_Unsustainable_Economic_Growth_Understanding_Economic_Growth_as_Ideology_Myth_Religion_and_Cultural_Meme Barry is the Belfast lead for the 5 year ESRC funded ‘Place Based Climate Action Network’ (PCAN) (2019-2023); a central element of which will be the establishing Belfast City Energy Transition and Climate Commission, which will have a strong Just Transition focus. Barry is leader of a Work Package entitled ‘Understanding Consumer Behaviour and a ‘Just Transition’ beyond Plastic Waste’ as part of an 18 month (April 2019-Sept 2020) UKRI funded ‘Advancing Creative Circular Economies for Plastics via Technological-Social Transitions’ (ACCEPT Transitions) project; Barry is leader of a Work Package entitled as part of the 5 year Prosperity Partnerships 2 funded project (2019-2023) ‘StreetZero: Roadmaps to Zero Net Emissions in Urban Public Transport’. Barry’s WP includes 2 PhD studentship one of which will be on ’ A ‘Just Transition’ of Public Transport Systems He is a former co-editor of the journal Environmental Politics and a member of its Advisory Board. He is a director /board member of Sustainable Northern Ireland, Training for Women Network and Green Foundation Ireland.

Harvard University

I am a senior research fellow at the Global Governance unit of the WZB Berlin Social Science Center. My research is inspired by the observation that virtually all global policy challenges, such as financial stability, international trade, migration, global health, and environmental sustainability are governed by international institutions which find their particular competences overlapping under no coordination from an overarching authority. The key question that motivates my work is to what extent effective and legitimate global governance is possible in such an environment. After visiting scholarships at the University of California at Berkeley and the Vrije Universiteit Brussels, I joined the WZB in 2011. Previously, I earned a doctorate summa cum laude from the University of Bamberg, where I held a grant from the DFG Training Group “Markets and Social Systems in Europe”. I have published my work in articles that appeared in The Review of International Organizations, Global Governance, Global Environmental Politics, Politische Vierteljahresschrift, and Zeitschrift für Internationale Beziehungen. In 2015, I published my first book entitled Von Konkurrenz zu Arbeitsteilung. Komplexität und Dynamik im Zusammenspiel internationaler Institutionen [From Competition to Division of Labor: Complexity and Dynamics in the Interplay of International Institutions]. I have taught at the University of Bamberg, Freie Universität Berlin, and Charles University in Prague.

Rai is a development consultant and has extensive experience in quantitative and qualitative data analysis, stakeholder consultations, primary data collection, risk management and research. She is part of a 4 member technical team to conduct the 'Country-led Formative Evaluation of the Maternal and Child Cash Transfer Program in Chin and Rakhine States in Myanmar’. As a part of this formative evaluation, she is currently developing the evaluation methodology, sampling plan and data collection tools with the Team Leader. In addition, Rai is undertaking literature review and assisting in report writing for the same assignment. Rai has experience in nutrition, education, and business modelling and livelihood strategy development. She has worked extensively with various think tanks and civil society organisations in the development sector and has engaged with a wide range of issues including the empowerment of low-income puppeteers and women dairy farmers, as well as the Ease of Doing Business in India. She has published a number of research papers and articles centred on food assistance programmes, nutrient fortification and globalisation, on a number of platforms including The Citizen, the Indian Economist and the Centre for Policy Analysis' website.