Cleaning Up: Leadership in an Age of Climate Change

James Cameron

James Cameron Profile Photo

Senior Advisor / Pollination and SYSTEMIQ, Friend / COP26

James Cameron is a barrister, independent adviser and social entrepreneur, and a recognised leader of the global climate change community. He is an expert on sustainability and trade policy – and as you can imagine he’s very much in demand in Britain right now, not only with the post-Brexit negotiations, but also since he was appointed as a ‘Friend of the COP’ for COP26, advising the Presidency.

James is a senior advisor for Pollination, a climate change advisory and investment firm, as well as System IQ, Tulchan Communications and AVAIA Capital. He also sits on the Advisory Board for Heathrow 2.0 and is a London Sustainable Development Commissioner. James was a co-founder and chair of Climate Change Capital, the world’s first green investment bank and sat on the board of GE Ecomagination, Green Running and ET Index.

Before that, James was co-founder of the climate change practice at Baker McKenzie, a negotiator on behalf of the Association of Small Island States (AoSIS) at the UNFCCC, and Senior Advisor to the Morocco and Fiji COP Presidencies. He has been a member of the UK Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Group and for eight years was Chair of the Overseas Development Institute (ODI).

James has held academic posts at Cambridge, London, Bruges and Sydney and is currently affiliated with the Yale Centre for Environmental Law and Policy.

274
Sept. 16, 2026

The Race Is On To Control AI | Episode 274: Afonso Salema & Sam Winter-Levy

More than 80% of the world’s advanced AI compute is concentrated in the US and China. For Europe and other middle powers, the question may no longer be how to win the AI race, but how to avoid becoming dangerously dependent on those that do. This week on Cleaning Up, James Cameron, Chair of Cleaning Up’s Editorial Council, takes over as guest host. He speaks with Sam Winter-Levy, Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Afonso Salema, CEO of Exus Digital and founde...
188
Dec. 4, 2024

Is The International Order Too Weak To Stop Climate Change? Ep188: James Cameron

What was achieved at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan? Where will the promised $300 billion come from, and how will it be spent? And what reforms are needed to make the COP process more effective and impactful? This week, host Michael Liebreich sits down with James Cameron, an international climate lawyer who has been involved with the COP process since before COPs were COPs. James shares his insights into the challenges and dynamics of these high-stakes global talks, from the crucial role of small ...