Bio
Jose Maria holds a DPhil in Public Policy from the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford (2021) during which he was awarded the Giandomenico Majone Prize for Early Career Scholars. He trained as an international politics scholar at El Colegio de Mexico, the University of Chicago, and Tsinghua University.
Between 2013-2014 he worked as Mexico’s Department of Energy as climate change and renewable energy planning lead. He as also worked for WWF Mexico on climate and renewable energy policy. He has acted as a consultant to UNIDO, UNEP, and the US-National Renewable Energy Lab on institutional design for low carbon transitions in energy and industry.
He is an active member of the Oxford Scenarios Programme, the Oxford Martin Programme on Integrating Renewable Energy, and the Oxford Martin Programme on Post Carbon Transition. He is also a member of the Energy for Growth Hub, a global think tank advancing data-driven solutions to end energy poverty.
Interests
Jose Maria Valenzuela works on renewable energy, governance and new approaches to tackling the energy crisis.
Jose Maria looks at policy-making institutions and practices, focusing on how technical knowledge is used in government. He works with OceanNETs to explore the possibilities for large-scale deployment of ocean-based negative emission technologies to contribute efforts to achieve climate neutrality.
He has been a researcher on GASCON (Greenhouse Gas Removal: Governance and Standards for Carbon Neutrality), developing a comparative political economy of greenhouse gas removal in emerging economies, and a better of understanding of governance models and policy frameworks for their responsible development adapted to the respective political context.
He has recently conducted research in Europe, China, and Latin American electricity markets and the role of experts in increasing regulatory capacity.
