From 25 April to 10 June 2022, Dr Robert Pollock will join the College of Europe in Bruges as a Visiting Scholar affiliated with the Department of EU International Relations and Diplomacy Studies.
During his time at the College, Dr Pollock will conduct research on the evolution of EU leadership in the global energy transition, particularly regarding the internationalisation of the EU’s ‘Just Transition’ agenda. He plans to inter alia analyse the EU’s contributions to the Silesia Declaration adopted at the 2018 United Nations climate regime’s conference of the parties (COP) 24, the ‘Initiative for Coal Regions in Transition’ in the Western Balkans and Ukraine, and the International Just Energy Transition Partnership adopted at the Glasgow COP26 in 2021.
Dr Pollock is currently a Senior Advisor to the European Union’s ‘Coal Regions in Transition Initiative’ and leads delivery of its technical assistance programme to support a Just Transition in affected regions. He has worked at senior levels in government and consultancy in relation to regional and territorial development for almost thirty years and has advised the European Commission, OECD, UN agencies and the World Bank on issues such as energy transition and industrial development. His PhD related to energy transition, multi-level governance and industrial development. He is an Irish and British citizen and, between 2015 and 2020, he was Chair of the Economic Development Association of Scotland.