Biography of Daniel Esty

In addition to serving as Director of the Center for Environmental Law and Policy, Daniel C. Esty is the Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law and Policy at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and the Yale Law School, as well as the Director of the Yale World Fellows Program. He is the author or editor of eight books and numerous articles on environmental policy issues and the relationships between the environment and trade, security, competitiveness, international institutions, business, and development. His recent research interests concentrate on the benefits of data-driven environmental decisionmaking in national environmental performance measurement, global environmental governance, corporate environmental strategy, environmental understanding, and environmental protection in the Information Age. In 2002, Professor Esty received the American Bar Association Award for Distinguished Achievement in Environmental Law and Policy for “pioneering a data-driven approach to environmental decision making” and developing the global Environmental Sustainability Index.

Prior to taking his current position at Yale, Professor Esty was a Senior Fellow at the Institute for International Economics, a Washington DC think-tank. From 1989-93, he served in a variety of positions in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, including Special Assistant to EPA Administrator William Reilly, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Agency, and Deputy Assistant Administrator for Policy. He coordinated the EPA’s regulatory program, negotiated a number of international agreements (including key aspects of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit), and launched several “competitiveness and environment” projects.