Rebecca Willis (www.rebeccawillis.co.uk) is an independent researcher and Vice-Chair of the UK Sustainable Development Commission. Her work focuses on environmental politics and policymaking at both a national and regional level. She has researched and written on issues such as climate change, energy policy, public attitudes to the environment, government spending and taxation, and the environmental and social impact of new technologies.

As Vice-Chair for Whitehall, Rebecca represents the Sustainable Development Commission in central government, working with government ministers, advisers and officials to ensure that government policy reflects sustainability goals. Her freelance portfolio involves work with a range of organisations including Defra, Greenpeace, English Nature and the NorthWest Regional Assembly. Recent projects include:

• The Disrupters: lessons for low-carbon innovation from the new wave of environmental pioneers, a report by Demos for NESTA, the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts

• Grid 2.0: The next generation, an influential pamphlet on the role of individuals within the energy system, written as part of Green Alliance’s contribution to the government’s energy review.

• A Green Living Initiative, co-authored with Professor Paul Ekins and published by the Policy Studies Institute, analysing the role of tax incentives in promoting sustainable households.

• Strategic advice to the NorthWest Regional Assembly, as part of a review of the NorthWest’s sustainability action plan.

Rebecca is a regular speaker at conferences and seminars, and has written for The Guardian, New Statesman and the journal Renewal. She is an Associate of the think-tank Demos, and of environmental group Green Alliance. From 2001-4 she was Green Alliance’s Director. Previously, Rebecca spent two years as a policy adviser at the European Parliament in Brussels, specialising in international environmental issues.

Rebecca has a first class degree in Social and Political Sciences from the University of Cambridge, and a masters degree in Environment, Development and Policy from the University of Sussex. She lives in Cumbria with her husband and two young sons, and divides her time between London and the Lake District.