Andrew Simms

Andrew Simms is an author, political economist and campaigner. He is co-director of the New Weather Institute (newweather.org), coordinator of the Rapid Transition Alliance (rapidtransition.org), assistant director of Scientists for Global Responsibility, a research associate at the University of Sussex, and was policy director for many years at the New Economics Foundation. He was a co-author and publisher of the original Green New Deal in 2008. Andrew devised ‘Earth Overshoot Day,’ marking when in the year we start living beyond our ecological means and, with Prof Peter Newell, proposed the Fossil Fuel Non Proliferation Treaty, now a major international campaign. He also coined the term ‘Clone Towns’ describing the homogenisation of high streets caused by chain stores. New Scientist magazine called him a 'master at joined up progressive thinking’. His books include Cancel the Apocalypse, Ecological Debt, The New Economics, Tescopoly and Do Good Lives Have to Cost the Earth? His latest is, Economics: A Crash Course, the first beginners guide to the subject written from a plural, new economics’ perspective, co-authored with David Boyle. He has also edited and contributed to a series of collections of modern folk tales for troubling times: 'There was a knock at the door', 'Knock twice', and 'Knock three times'. His current campaigns include Badvertising (badverts.org) – to stop adverts fuelling the climate emergency, and Car Free Mega Cities (carfreemegacities.org). He tweets from @andrewsimms_uk