Dr Patrick Schröder is an expert in the global transition to an inclusive circular economy, with a particular research emphasis on international policy coordination, bridging the investment gap, the role of global trade, and the contribution of the circular economy to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Before joining Chatham House, he was a research fellow at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex. From 2008 to 2015, he was based in Beijing, where he worked extensively on development cooperation programmes for the European Union and climate change initiatives with the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ).
Currently, he serves as the coordinating lead author for UNEP’s Global Environmental Outlook 7 and is a member of the International Science Council’s expert group on plastic pollution.
Dr Schröder’s academic work has been published in high-impact journals such as Nature Sustainability, the Journal of Industrial Ecology, Sustainability Science and Resources, and Conservation and Recycling. His opinion articles have appeared in leading international media outlets, including Foreign Policy, Devex, The Independent, The Hill and the China Daily.
He holds a BA (Hons) in Chinese from the University of Westminster, and earned his MA in international relations and PhD in environmental studies from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.
Dr Jack Barrie is an expert in the global transition to an inclusive circular economy, with a particular research focus on international policy coordination, national roadmaps and strategies, the role of global trade, and the contribution of the circular economy to achieving the SDGs. He works in a technical and advisory capacity on a range of different international projects, such as the EU’s ‘SWITCH to Circular Economy Value Chains’ initiative. He was also the lead author on the world’s first ‘Global stocktake of national circular economy roadmaps’ in partnership with UNIDO. Jack also has conducted independent consulting work on the circular economy with organizations such as the UN, the World Customs Organization and the University of Edinburgh.
As a result of his research, he regularly advises high-ranking government and intergovernmental officials and private sector leaders. He sits on the World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s technical working group for the Global Circularity Protocol (GCP), as well as being a specialist adviser to the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) on environmental, social and governance traceability of sustainable value chains in the circular economy. He is also a member of the ‘expert group on circular economy, trade and sustainable development’ at the World Trade Organization’s Trade and Environmental Sustainability Structured Discussions (TESSD). In addition to his work at Chatham House, Jack is an editor of the Circular Economy journal and commonly lectures on the circular economy. He is also a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Young Academy of Scotland.
Before joining Chatham House’s Environment and Society Centre in 2021, Jack held the role of circular economy policy analyst at Zero Waste Scotland, where he developed the research, evidence, analysis and advice on circular economy policy development to support the Scottish government, which has been recognized as a leading circular economy government.
Jack holds a PhD (University of Strathclyde) on circular economy innovation policy, and master’s degrees in engineering for sustainable development (University of Cambridge) and in civil and environmental engineering (University of Edinburgh). He has worked in a technical engineering capacity on a range of radical sustainable technologies across Africa, Asia and Europe, including solar home systems, airborne wind energy systems and desalination plants.
