Paul Ekins is Professor of Resources and Environmental Policy and Director of the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources at University College London. He is also Deputy Director of the UK Energy Research Centre, and the UKERC Co-Director leading on its Energy Resources theme. In addition, he is a member of UNEP's International Resource Panel and of the Advisory Committee of the Green Growth Knowledge Platform (GGKP). In 2011 he was appointed Vice-Chairman of the DG Environment Commissioner’s High-Level Economists Expert Group on Resource Efficiency and a member of the European Commission's high-level European Resource Efficiency Platform.

Paul Ekins’ academic work focuses on the conditions and policies for achieving an environmentally sustainable economy. He is the author of numerous papers, book-chapters and articles in a wide range of journals, and has written or edited twelve books, including Economic Growth and Environmental Sustainability: the Prospects for Green Growth (Routledge, London, 2000) and Environmental Tax Reform: A Policy for Green Growth (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2011). In 1994 Paul Ekins received a Global 500 Award ‘for outstanding environmental achievement’ from the United Nations Environment Programme. In 2015 he was awarded an OBE in the UK's New Year's Honours List for services to environmental policy.