Brendan Devlin is the Methane, Fossil Fuel Phase Out and Just Transition Advisor/Counsellor in the Directorate General for Energy of the European Commission. His prime job is to give thought leadership on the transition away from fossil fuel.

In addition to giving this strategic advice, his work focuses on methane emissions reduction in hydrocarbons supply chains, the international just transition, short-lived climate pollutants reduction, supply chain integrity, transformation of international and national oil and gas companies, transparency and corruption.

In 2021, he conceived and delivered the Global Methane Pledge, building out from the EU methane strategy of 2020. He also prepared the policy options that lead to the inclusion of a proposed oil and gas moratorium into the European Union’s Arctic Strategy.

At present, he is the Co-Chair of the OECD working group on fossil fuel phase out in resource rich countries, sits on the Board of the UN Climate and Clean Air Coalition and is on the working group of the Task Force on Carbon Pricing in Europe.

By training, Mr Devlin is a lawyer and economist. Before the Commission, he worked as a journalist, writing in the UK national press (specifically the education pages of the Guardian newspaper) and as an editor on a specialist political/economic journal (Oxford Analytica). He has also worked in a Fortune 500 company (ENRON – Director of Regulation, Europe) and as teacher of political economy at the London School of Economics.