20th IAEE European Conference - Madrid

Prof. Laura Diaz Anadon is Chaired Professor of Climate Change Policy at the University of Cambridge, where she directs the Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance (CEENRG), is a Fellow of St John's College, and serves on several university boards. She is also a long-standing Affiliate at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Her research focuses on climate change mitigation, energy policy, and innovation. She is a Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Seventh Assessment Report, Vice-Chair of the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change, and a member of the UK Committee on Climate Change.

Prof. Diaz Anadon has advised governments and international organizations worldwide and previously held academic positions at the Harvard Kennedy School. She has received numerous distinctions, including the Fundación Banco Sabadell Prize for Economic Research, and holds degrees from the University of Cambridge, Harvard Kennedy School, and the University of Manchester.

Gonzalo Escribano is Senior Fellow and Director of the Energy and Climate Programme at the Elcano Royal Institute, and Professor of Applied Economics at the UNED. His expertise focuses on energy geopolitics, climate policy, and the political economy of North Africa.

He has been a visiting researcher at Florida State University and the Autonomous University of Madrid, and has participated in numerous international research projects, including initiatives funded by the European Commission. He has also received the Research Award of the Spanish Economic and Social Council.

Gonzalo holds a PhD in Economics from Complutense University of Madrid and regularly teaches postgraduate courses at Spanish and international universities. He works in Spanish, English, and French.

Javier Blas is a Spanish financial journalist, commodities analyst, author, and columnist at Bloomberg Opinion. He is internationally recognized for his expertise in global energy markets, commodity trading, oil, natural gas, geopolitics, and macroeconomic trends, and is regarded as one of the leading public voices on commodities, sanctions, supply chains, and energy security.

Blas began his journalism career in Spain before joining the Financial Times, where he became one of the publication's leading commodities and energy correspondents. He later served as Commodities Editor and Africa Editor, covering OPEC policy, oil market disruptions, mining, food inflation, natural resources, and the political economy of emerging markets.

He is currently an energy and commodities columnist at Bloomberg Opinion, where he writes on global oil and gas markets, OPEC decisions, inflation, sanctions, energy security, supply chains, and geopolitical risks. Blas is also the co-author of The World for Sale: Money, Power and the Traders Who Barter the Earth's Resources, an internationally acclaimed book that was shortlisted for the Financial Times & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award and named a Book of the Year by both the Financial Times and The Economist.

Dr. Michal Meidan is an energy analyst, China specialist, and Head of China Energy Research at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies (OIES). She is internationally recognized for her expertise in China's energy sector, energy security, oil markets, the energy transition, geopolitics, and the intersection of Chinese politics and global commodity markets, and is regarded as one of the leading experts on China's role in global energy and climate policy.

Before joining OIES in 2019, Meidan led cross-commodity China research at Energy Aspects, where she analyzed China's influence across global energy and commodity markets. She previously founded and headed China Matters, an independent research consultancy focused on the politics of energy in China. Earlier in her career, she held senior analytical positions at Eurasia Group in New York and London and at Asia Centre–Sciences Po in Paris, providing research and strategic analysis on China's political economy, energy policy, and international affairs.

She is currently Head of China Energy Research at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, where her work focuses on China's oil and gas markets, energy policy, decarbonization, energy security, industrial strategy, and the country's evolving role in global energy markets. Meidan has authored numerous academic publications on China's political economy and energy sector, frequently contributes expert commentary to international media, and is a sought-after speaker at major industry conferences and policy forums.

Dr. Meidan holds a PhD in Political Science and East Asian Studies from Sciences Po, Paris. She is fluent in Mandarin and French.

Dr. Benjamin K. Sovacool is Professor of Energy Policy at the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at the University of Sussex Business School and Professor of Earth and Environment at Boston University, where he directs the Institute for Global Sustainability.

His research focuses on global energy policy and politics, energy security and justice, renewable energy, energy infrastructure, and climate change mitigation and adaptation. He also studies the design of public policies that improve energy access, resilience, and sustainability.

Dr. Sovacool is one of the world's most highly cited researchers in energy and climate policy, and his work has been widely featured in international media.

Dr. Sonia Yeh is Professor of Transport and Energy Systems at the Department of Space, Earth and Environment. Her research focuses on energy economics, energy system modelling, sustainable transport, alternative fuels, technological change, and consumer mobility behaviour.

She has advised policymakers, governments, and international organisations worldwide on strategies to reduce transport-related greenhouse gas emissions, including collaborations with the International Energy Agency (IEA), UNFCCC, OECD, World Bank, and Asian Development Bank.

Dr. Yeh co-leads the International Transportation Energy Modeling (ITEM) project and was a contributing author to the transport chapter of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report. She is also an adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon University and a Senior Editor of the journal Energy Policy.

Prof. Ying Fan is Professor of Management Science and Economics at Beihang University. She serves as Director of the MOE Laboratory for Low-carbon Intelligent Governance (LLIG) and Director of the Center for Energy & Environmental Policy Research (CEEP), a joint research center of Beihang University, the Institute of Policy and Management of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and CNPC.

Her research focuses on energy systems engineering, low-carbon development, energy and environmental policy, and the integration of management science and economic methods to address complex energy–environment–economy challenges.

Prof. Fan currently serves as President-Elect of the International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE, 2026), Vice President of the Systems Engineering Society of China (SESC), and Scientific Committee Member of the Climate Economics Chair in Paris. She also holds editorial positions for leading journals, including The Energy Journal, Energy Policy, and Computers & Industrial Engineering.

Teresa Ribera is the Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for a Clean, Just and Competitive Transition at the European Commission. She previously served as Vice-President of the Government of Spain and Minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, as well as a Member of the Spanish Parliament.

She was Director of the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI), where she contributed to the preparation of the Paris Climate Agreement, and earlier served as Spain’s Secretary of State for Climate Change and Biodiversity. She has also taught public law at the Autonomous University of Madrid.

She is a member of the Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium and is a senior public official with extensive experience in climate policy and environmental governance.