After a decade as a project housed at other NGOs, the SRM Governance Initiative (SRMGI) has moved into a new phase, establishing as an independent non-profit organisation and changing its name to The Degrees Initiative. Degrees stands for Developing world Governance, Research and Evaluation of SRM. Our mission, vision and values remain the same, and we will continue to work to build the capacity of developing countries to evaluate SRM.
New board of directors
Degrees will be governed by a board of experienced trustees who will be responsible for the initiative’s oversight and good governance. They are:
Prof. John Shepherd CBE FRS
John is Degrees’ Chair of Trustees and an Emeritus Professor of Earth System Science at the University of Southampton. He served as Deputy Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research from 2001 to 2010 and chaired the Royal Society’s seminal 2009 Geoengineering the climate report. He has been a Co-chair of the initiative since 2010.
Mr Mark Hilton
Mark is Director of Operations at The Elders, and Degrees’ Honorary Treasurer. He has over 25 years of experience in strategy, leadership and governance positions. Mark holds Master’s degrees in Global Development Management and Accounting and Financial Management, and is also a trustee of the British Institute of Human Rights.
Prof. Saleemul Huq
Saleem has been the Director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) in Dhaka since 2009. He has been an IPCC Lead Author multiple times and was a Senior Fellow at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). In 2019 he was listed as one of the twenty most influential people working on climate change around the world.
Mrs Jackie Kado
Jackie is the Executive Director of the Network of African Science Academies which she helped found in 2001. She specialises in project planning and management for policy interventions and also trains on good financial management for research and development projects. She serves as a member of several committees in Kenya and internationally.
Mr Oliver Morton
Oliver is a senior editor at The Economist. As a science writer he has covered SRM for over a decade, including as the author of the 2016 book The Planet Remade. He has extensive experience as an advisory board member, is an Honorary Professor at University College London and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Chief Executive
The new organisation will see Andy Parker moving into the Chief Executive role. He has been SRMGI/Degrees’ main architect since 2010, responsible for its focus on the Global South, its programme of workshops, and the DECIMALS Fund.