Mark Purdon

Mark Purdon is an assistant professor at the École des sciences de la gestion at the Université du Québec à Montréal (ESG UQAM). He is an expert in the emerging field of comparative environmental politics, which combines elements of comparative politics, comparative public policy and international relations. He is particularly interested in the relationship between climate change policy and political economy, with extensive research experience in both the developing and developed worlds. His research has appeared in World Development, Global Environmental Politics, the Journal of International Relations and Development, Environmental Science and Policy, Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability as well as Society & Natural Resources. He is also completing a book manuscript comparing the effectiveness of global climate finance instruments in Tanzania, Uganda and Moldova over a ten-year period stretching from the Kyoto Protocol through Paris Agreements.

Mark is currently involved with EfD colleagues on two projects, both supported by external funding. A first includes a research partnership exploring the comparative political economy of energy transitions and energy system modeling in Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. A second investigates the sustainability of forest carbon offset projects in Uganda, building on detailed fieldwork in 2009 and 2019 that includes over 350 household surveys.

Mark earned a PhD in political science at the University of Toronto in 2013 and completed a SSHRC postdoctoral fellowship at the London School of Economics in 2014. He is been an international research associate with EfD-Tanzania since 2011 and appointed similar status at EfD-Makerere in 2019.

Education

• PhD University of Toronto (2005 — 2013)
• MSc University of Oxford (2003 — 2004)
• MSc Université du Québec à Montréal (1999 — 2001)
• Bachelor of Science (BSc) Mount Allison University (1994 — 1998)

Companies

• Assistant Professor Université du Québec du Montréal (2018)
• Associate Researcher Environment for Development Initiative (2011)
• Executive Director Institut québécois du carbone (2015 — 2021)
• Chercheur invité Université de Montréal (2014 — 2018)
• Associate Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment (GRI) (2013 — 2014)
• Visiting Fellow, Department of International Development London School of Economics (2013 — 2014)
• PhD Candidate, Department of Political Science University of Toronto (2005 — 2013)
• Consultant Transparency International (2012 — 2013)
• Consultant The Gold Standard Foundation (2011 — 2012)