The CCRM Team

Dr Murray Simpson

MSc Greenwich, DPhil University of Oxford

Senior Research Associate, University of Oxford

Principal, Sustainable Solutions Worldwide

Associate Professor, Estonian University of Life Sciences, (Tartu, Estonia)

Treasurer and Co-Founding Committee Member of the UK Committee on the International Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change (IHDP-GEC)

Dr Murray Simpson is a climate change and development expert working in the nexus of the environment, climate change, sustainable development and tourism. His research and professional interests are focused on climate change impacts, adaptation and mitigation, carbon neutrality, socio-economics, sustainable livelihoods and sustainable tourism. His work involves developing strategies surrounding the interactions and relationships between climate change, tourism, the environment, sustainability and international development. Murray has worked as project leader and chief advisor in Europe, the Caribbean, Africa, the USA and Australasia; with governments, the private sector and many international organizations including United Nations Agencies; UNEP, UNDP, UNWTO, and UNFCCC, the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank, the World Meteorological Organization, the European Development Fund (Europeaid), the Association of Caribbean States (ACS); the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO); the EU; the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO); and the British Academy. He is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a member of the United Nations World Tourism Organization Expert Panel.

Research Interests and Expertise

Murray is a founding member of the international research and development community studying the interactions of climate change and tourism. On this topic he has worked in conjunction with the European Science Foundation (ESF), NATO, the EU, the European Forum for Environmental Assessment (EFIEA), UNDP, the British Academy and UNEP. Murray is engaged as a tourism expert by the UNWTO and a member of the UNWTO Panel of Tourism Experts.

Thematic Areas:

• Climate Change and Sustainable Development (Impacts, Adaptation and Mitigation)
• Tourism and Climate Change
• Carbon Neutrality
• Environmental Sustainability
• Disaster Risk Management
• Sustainability and International Development
• Carbon Counting Strategies

World Regions of Interest:

• Caribbean and Central America
• Europe, UK and Mediterranean
• Australasia
• USA
• Asia
• Small Island States

Examples of Research/Consultancy Topics

Murray has recently worked with the British Foreign Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Association of Caribbean States on the establishment of a Sustainable Tourism Zone for the Greater Caribbean (STZC) involving the selection and quantification of sustainable tourism indicators and the development of a categorization procedure for destinations in all twenty-nine (29) member states.

• Expert Advisor to South West Climate Change Partnership on Worked Example for UKCIP08 tools and methodologies for climate change variables and assessment. UK
• Project Leader evaluating the opportunities for alternative energy, carbon offset projects and carbon trading, and developing energy policy for transition and developing countries and small island states. Multi-national.
• Chief Consultant on European Union funded project; Good Practices: Natural Hazard Risk Management in the Caribbean Tourism Sector, part of the Sustainable Tourism Development Programme.
• Project Leader, and Tourism and Climate Change Expert in partnership with Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) developing a multi-sectoral project across the Caribbean States addressing the impacts of climate change, the development of ‘carbon-neutral’ destinations, adaptation and mitigation strategies and disaster risk management to be funded by multi-donors including the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and UK Dept. for Int’l Development.
• Climate Change Expert for the Government of Guyana (GoG) and the European Commission conducting a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) for the preparation of a Sea Defence Policy Framework and Sector Programme (SDSP) funded by the European Development Fund. (Guyana).
• Project Leader and Lead Author of joint United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), University of Oxford, UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and World Meteorological Organization (WMO) publication; Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in the Tourism Sector: Frameworks Tools and Practices.

Selected Recent Publications