Andrew Simms

Andrew is an author, analyst and co-director of the New Weather Institute, coordinator of the Rapid Transition Alliance and assistant director of Scientists for Global Responsibility. For many years he was policy director at the New Economics Foundation think tank, leading its work on climate, energy, environment and interdependence, as well as the health of local economies. In his book Ecological Debt - Global Warming and the Wealth of Nations (2005), Andrew explored the power and influence of motor manufacturers and their role in shaping urban environments and driving the climate emergency, and in 'Eminent Corporations' (2009) he analysed the economic history of the car industry in the UK and its centrality in economic policy and how that has shifted with globalisation. 

Andrew has written widely on cars and the policy issues surrounding the shift to sustainability, including a landmark cover story for the New Statesman magazine. In 2017 Andrew devised Smog Day as a powerful communications tool to reveal the hidden human cost of cars in urban environments and as a way to talk about alternative futures, with support from UNEP. More recently he has led work with the Rapid Transition Alliance looking at lessons from the pandemic for reductions in unnecessary travel and improving the quality of urban environments, and launched the Badvertising campaign along with Possible, to stop adverts fuelling the climate emergency, with an initial focus on halting the promotion of the most polluting cars. Andrew was called ‘a master at joined up, creative thinking’, by New Scientist magazine.