Dr. Emma Lecavalier, a postdoctoral researcher at the Oxford Climate Policy Hub at the Blavatnik School, has been awarded a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship. The fellowship gives early career researchers an opportunity to undertake a significant piece of publishable work.

Emma’s project is entitled "When States Buy Green: The Political Economy of Decarbonising Public Spending". While regulation and subsidies are often the focus of research on climate change policy, Emma’s work project considers an under examined government tool: public procurement. Governments are also some of the world's largest consumers. Every school, bridge, hospital, and public building represents a purchasing decision and an opportunity by which governments can influence markets. Emma's research will consider how governments are using their purchasing power to accelerate the transition to low-carbon industries – specifically cement and steel – while  also revealing the political and legal challenges that states encounter when they try to 'buy green'.