Expertise Areas

Just Transition; Sustainability; ESG & Energy Justice; Social Contract

Brief Bio

Professor Raphael Heffron is Professor in Energy Law, Justice, the Social Contract and Sustainability at the Universite de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour, Pau, France. He is also Jean Monnet Professor in the Just Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy awarded by the European Commission (2019-2022). In 2020, he was appointed as Senior Counsel at Janson law firm in Brussels (Belgium). Professor Heffron is a qualified Barrister-at-Law, and a graduate of both Oxford (MSc-Christ Church) and Cambridge (MPhil-Darwin & PhD-Trinity Hall). He also holds degrees from the University of St. Andrews (MLitt), and Trinity College Dublin (BA, MA).

His work all has a principal focus on achieving a sustainable and just transition to a low-carbon economy, and combines a mix of law, policy and economics. He has published over 200 publications of different types and he is the most cited scholar in his field worldwide for energy law, energy justice and just transition worldwide (4000+ Scopus/8000+ Googlescholar – see also the Scopus-Stanford ranking) with translated work in multiple languages including Chinese, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic and Persian. Professor Heffron has given just over 220 keynotes or guest lectures in 64 countries worldwide.

Raphael’s energy research has involved funding from the European Union, ASEAN Centre for Energy, UK Commonwealth, 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 a European Commission Jean Monnet Professorship 2019-2022. He has given professional expert advice on energy law and policy issues (low-carbon energy and electricity systems) to the EU, UN, Commonwealth Secretariat, World Bank, and various international thinktanks – he currently serves on the UNECE Group of Experts on Cleaner Electricity Systems. More recently, he has worked on low carbon energy projects for the 10 Member States of the ASEAN Center for Energy (2021); produced policy reports on the energy transition and energy finance for the 54 Member States of the Commonwealth (2021), advised Nigerian Ministries on oil, gas and the energy transition (2019), and Colombian professionals on climate & green finance (2019-23).

Raphael was elected 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). 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.

He is a reviewer for the most recent IPCC Report. Raphael is also the Consulting Editor of the current Halsbury’s Laws of England volumes on Energy Law (the leading practitioner energy law series). Raphael is co-editor of the forthcoming Oxford University Press Handbook for International Energy Law. 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 journal Oxford Open Climate Change.

Dr. Raphael holds or has in the past held the following positions: an Associate Researcher at the Energy Policy Research Group at the University of Cambridge (current), & the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, University of Oxford; and a Visiting Professor at the: Paris-Dauphine University (Paris, 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– current), the ESCP Business School (Paris & London), Kathmandu University (Nepal); and in the past a Visiting Scholar at MIT (US), University of Sydney (Australia), University Of Texas at Austin (US) and the British Institute for International and Comparative Law (UK).

Publications (Weblink only), if any:

• https://raphaelheffron.com/research/
• https://www.qmul.ac.uk/law/people/visiting-and-honorary-staff/items/heffron.html