Tony Ripley joined Independent Diplomat in September 2022 as a Climate Advisor after a UK Government career working on environment and climate change.

Most recently, Tony led the government’s climate litigation policy and engagement with the Scottish, Welsh, and Northern Ireland governments on implementation of the UK’s Net Zero Strategy. 

Prior to that, Tony was head of mitigation ambition and under-represented voices in the UNFCCC negotiations team.  In this role he was secretary to the informal Cartagena Dialogue group, bringing together progressive governments from different regional blocs to find negotiated solutions.  

Tony was the architect of the UK’s global ambition raising campaign ahead of COP26, pushing for strengthened Nationally Determined Contributions and Long Term (Net Zero) Strategies under the Paris Agreement. At the Glasgow summit, as the UK negotiation team’s delegation manager, he brought his experience from four previous COPs to troubleshoot the conference’s unique logistical challenges under the COVID-19 pandemic.  He represented the UK at the Multilateral Assessment and was part of the Presidency’s strategy team which delivered the Glasgow Climate Pact.

Tony’s other international experience includes roles as the UK’s REDD+ lead, negotiating land use and forestry issues in the UN and developing and overseeing climate finance programmes to protect the Amazon; and as the EU and international policy lead on carbon capture and storage.