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Staff and Associates

Simon Upton


Simon Upton serves as Director for the Global Subsidies Initiative (GSI), an ambitious new programme developed by IISD, aimed at improving information on the extent and effects of subsidies, especially those that are harming developing countries or the environment.

Simon is a 48 year old New Zealander who has been working in and around the environment and sustainable development for over twenty years. He was an elected member of the New Zealand House of Representatives for 19 years (between 1981 and 2000) and a cabinet minister for 9 of those years. During that time he held many portfolios including those of environment, science and development assistance. As New Zealand's Environment Minister he chaired the 7th Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development. Since his retirement from national politics at the age of 42, he has chaired the Round Table on Sustainable Development at the OECD in Paris, headed a ministerially-led Task Force on IUU fishing on the high seas and contributed extensively to global sustainable development processes.

Simon comes from a farming background although he is trained as a lawyer and, as a Rhodes Scholar, read political philosophy at Oxford University. As an MP in New Zealand during the 1980s, Simon spent long hours working with farming constituents as they coped with adjusting to life without subsidies. He says that experience was invaluable for what it taught him both about the futility of subsidies and the difficulty of eliminating them.

Simon is married with two children. He is a fanatical tree planter and gardener in his spare time and also maintains an interest in science-based start-up companies in his native New Zealand.
Simon Upton has returned to the OECD as chairman of the Round Table on Sustainable Development. Simon will continue to support GSI as a member of the High Level Advisory Group.