Mr Jos Delbeke (1954, Belgium) has been the Director-General of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Climate Action since its creation in 2010. He joined the European Commission in 1986.
Mr Delbeke was very involved in the negotiations on the European Union's 2009 policy package on climate change and energy in the European Council and Parliament. He has been a key player in developing EU legislation on cars and fuels, the Emissions Trading System (ETS), air quality, emissions from big industrial installations and chemicals (REACH). Mr Delbeke has been responsible for developing the EU's international climate change strategy and was for many years the European Commission's chief negotiator at the United Nations climate conferences.
Mr Delbeke holds a PhD in economics (1986, Louvain, Belgium) and worked in 1985 at the International Monetary Fund (Washington DC, USA). He has been a lecturer at the University of Louvain on European and international environmental policy since 2013. As an economist, he has always underlined the role of market-based instruments and cost-benefit analysis in the field of the environment.
In 2015, Mr Delbeke co-authored a book entitled "EU Climate Policy Explained", which aims to explain the EU's climate policies in an accessible way.
