Axel Michaelowa is head of the group on international climate policy at the chair "Political Economy and Development", University of Zurich and Center for Comparative and International Studies (CIS). Besides his research work, he is senior founding partner of the consultancy "Perspectives". Axel is a lead author of the chapter on international agreements in the 5th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change due in 2014 and wrote on mitigation policies in the 4th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published in 2007. He is member of the editorial boards of the journals "Climate Policy", "Climate and Development" and "Greenhouse Gas Measurement and Management" as well as of the board of the research network "Climate Strategies". For the last two decades, Axel has been working on climate policy issues and published over 100 articles, studies and book contributions, mainly on the Kyoto Mechanisms and especially the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Axel is a member of the CDM Executive Board's Registration and Issuance Team and has contributed to the development of eight approved CDM baseline methodologies. As one of the leading European experts on CDM institution building in developing countries, Axel supported several governments in Asia and North Africa/Middle East.

Research Focus

Market mechanisms in climate policy, Clean Development Mechanism, development of the future international climate policy regime, influence of interest groups on national climate policies