Perspectives Climate Group

OUR TEAM
Max Schmidt
Consultant

“The climate crisis is a fossil fuel crisis. At Perspectives, we try to phase out global finance flows to fossil fuels, and re-direct them to renewable energies, for truly positive climate finance.”

Areas of expertise
  • Climate finance
  • Fossil Fuel Trade and Finance Flows
  • Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform
  • Global Energy and Climate Policy
  • Just Energy Transitions
  • Loss and Damage Finance
  • Renewable Energy Finance

Max Schmidt holds an MSc in Research for International Development from SOAS, University of London and BA degrees in political sciences and sociology. He is also a Certified Expert in Climate and Renewable Energy Finance, awarded by the Frankfurt School – UNEP Collaborating Centre for Climate & Sustainable Energy Finance.

Max specialises in the nexus of climate, development, energy, and finance. At Perspectives, Max works mostly on transforming 'negative' climate finance into 'positive' climate finance, ranging from export finance over fossil fuel financial flows and Loss and Damage finance to renewable energy finance.

Previously, as a Carlo-Schmid-Fellow and then consultant, he supported the country teams of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) in India, Indonesia, and South Africa in updating their fossil fuel subsidy inventories, the OECD’s Fossil Fuel Subsidies Database, IISD’s Energy Policy Tracker, as well as the Indonesian G20 Presidency in 2022. In 2021, Max was a co-author of the first-ever systematic evaluation of UNDP’s energy access and transition portfolio as a research consultant. As a graduate research assistant at the SOAS Centre for Sustainable Finance, he gained his first experience working on the climate-debt-development-trilemma in 12 ASEAN countries in Southeast Asia. Max was first exposed to climate and economic diplomacy in 2018 when he worked for the German Embassy in Pretoria, South Africa.

Related Publications

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