Brian O'Callaghan
About
Brian O'Callaghan is Lead Researcher and Project Manager of the Oxford University Economic Recovery Project, which monitors and advises on government investment to achieve a sustainable recovery from the pandemic. He is also a Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Brian’s core research concerns the economic impacts of fiscal spending. He is interested in the role that green fiscal spending initiatives can have in times of economic distress and their relation to private investment.
He is an Australian Rhodes Scholar and Consultant at the Robertson Foundation and the Boston Consulting Group, covering topics in Energy and the Environment. He is also a consultant to government and business groups on issues relating to the energy and climate transitions.
His supplementary research interests include the economics of green hydrogen and methods for reducing perceived risk in renewable energy finance.
Expertise
- Economic recovery
- Energy transition
- Climate change
- Infrastructure finance and investment
- Foreign aid and public finance
- Technological change
Selected publications
- Are We Building Back Better? Evidence from 2020 and Pathways for Inclusive Green Recovery Spending (2021)
- A Prosperous Green Recovery for South Africa (2021)
- A Green Recovery for Latin America and the Caribbean (2021)
- Will COVID-19 fiscal recovery packages accelerate or retard progress on climate change? (2020)
- Five Lessons from COVID-19 for Advancing Climate Change Mitigation (2020)
- Briefing for policymakers: green hydrogen as fiscal stimulus (2020)
Media experience
Brian O'Callaghan has extensive experience of media interviews including for international print, radio broadcast, and tv broadcast.
Recent media work
- The G7 Want to Save the World from Climate Change. But Are They Willing to Pay for It? (Time, 2021)
- Are we building back better? Not yet, UN report warns (Al Jazeera, 2021)
- Sustainability at Work: Green recovery spending. Is growth sustainable? (Podcast, 2021)
- BBC World News: Green recovery (TV interview, 2020)
- Building Back Better – How can businesses ensure our recovery from Covid is green? (BBC Radio 4, 2020)
- Why the Pandemic May Accelerate Airbus Investing in Greener Air Travel (Wall Street Journal, 2020)
- Heed lessons of 2008 crisis, experts warn global leaders (The Guardian, 2020)
- Making India’s post-Covid recovery green will help tackle growing environment challenges and generate jobs (The Times of India)
- COVID And Climate Change: How To Kill Two Birds With One Stone (Forbes, 2020)
Languages
English