Åsa Persson

Åsa Persson is Strategic Advisor and Researcher at KTH Climate Action Centre since September 2025, and Chair of the Swedish Climate Policy Council. Her research focuses on the interplay between international and national policy for climate and sustainability. Previous research has focused on the choice of policy instruments, policy coherence, and international governance of climate change adaptation, planetary boundaries and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Åsa is Docent (Associate Professor) in environmental change and was previously Adjunct Professor at Linköping University. In 2018-2025 she was Research Director and Deputy Director of the Stockholm Environment Institute, a global research institute with 400 employees at eight centres around the world. Before this role, she was researcher, theme leader and head of unit at SEI, and guest researcher at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, Australian National University and Macquarie University, Sydney. She completed her PhD in 2007 at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

She is advises the UN on sustainable development and is member of two committees, the UN Committee for Development Policy and the High-level Advisory Board on Economic and Social Affairs. She was member of the Independent Group of Scientists writing the 2023 UN Global Sustainable Development Report. Other academic roles she has include Lead Faculty of the Earth System Governance network, editorial board member for 10 New Climate Science Insights, and member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry.