Cleo Verkuijl

Cleo Verkuijl’s research focuses on legal and political dimensions of UN sustainable development and climate policy, just and healthy dietary transitions, and animal health and welfare.

Cleo has led several multidisciplinary research projects on One Health and just transition approaches to food systems transformation. She was a coordinating lead author of UNEP’s “What’s Cooking” Frontiers report, on the potential of novel meat and dairy alternatives.

Cleo has also served as coordinating lead author of the first two Production Gap Reports. Produced by leading research organizations and the UN, this is the first assessment of the gap between the targets of the Paris Agreement and countries’ planned production of coal, oil, and gas.

A Team Leader and Writer for the Earth Negotiations Bulletin since 2015, Cleo has reported on UN processes on climate, ozone, and the Sustainable Development Goals, among others. She has taught environmental law and policy as an Adjunct Professor at Johns Hopkins University in Bologna, and as a tutor for the University of Edinburgh. She was a visiting research fellow at Harvard Law School in 2023–24, and is a 2025–2026 visiting fellow at the Oxford Martin School.

Cleo has also worked for the UN Environment Programme in Brussels and was a policy officer with the NGO network Climate Action Network International during the Paris climate negotiations.

Cleo holds an LL.M. in Global Environment and Climate Law from the University of Edinburgh.