Dr. Andrew Steer is the President and CEO of the World Resources Institute, a global research organisation that works in more than 50 countries, with offices in the United States, China, India, Brazil, Indonesia and Europe. WRI’s 450 experts work closely with leaders to address six urgent global challenges at the intersection of economic development and the natural environment: food, forests, water, climate, energy and cities.
Dr. Steer joined WRI from the World Bank, where he served as Special Envoy for Climate Change from 2010 – 2012. In this role he guided Bank Group efforts on climate change in more than 130 countries, oversaw the $7 billion Climate Investment Funds, and led the World Bank’s engagement on international climate negotiations.
From 2007 to 2010 he served as Director General at the UK Department of International Development (DFID) in London.
Dr. Steer serves on the Executive Board of the UN Secretary General’s Sustainable Energy For All initiative; is Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Natural Capital; and is a member of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED), the Leadership Council of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, and IKEA’s People and Planet Positive Advisory Group.
He is also Non-Resident Professor of Practice of Climate Policy and Development at the Fletcher School’s Center for International Environment & Resource Policy at Tufts University.
Prior to joining the UK Government, Andrew held several senior posts at the World Bank, including Director of the Environment Department, where he oversaw a major expansion of the Bank’s environmental program and a number of important innovations, including natural capital accounting and the introduction of carbon trading at the World Bank.
He was also a long-time resident in Southeast Asia, where he directed World Bank operations in Vietnam and Indonesia. In earlier years, he was Chief of the Bank’s Country Risk Division, and was also Director and Chief Author of the 1992 World Development Report on Environment and Development, the Bank’s flagship report to the Rio Earth Summit.
Dr. Steer was educated at St Andrews University, Scotland, the University of Pennsylvania, and at Cambridge University. He has a PhD in Economics, has written widely on sustainable development issues, and has taught at several universities.
