Adair Turner

Involvement Social

Lord Turner chairs the Energy Transitions Commission, a global coalition of major power and industrial companies, investors, environmental NGOs and experts working out achievable pathways to limit global warming to well below 2˚C by 2040 while stimulating economic development and social progress.

He was chairman of the Institute for New Economic Thinking until January 2019, where he remains a Senior Fellow. He is Chairman of Chubb Europe and on the Advisory Board of Envision Energy, a Shanghai-based group focussed on renewable energy, batteries and digital systems.

From 2008-2013, Lord Turner chaired the UK’s Financial Services Authority, and played a leading role in the post crisis redesign of global banking and shadow banking regulation.

Lord Turner has held high profile roles in public policy: he was Director General of the Confederation of British Industry (1995-2000); chairman of the UK Low Pay Commission (2002-2006); chairman of the Pensions Commision (2003-2006); he was the first chairman of the Climate Change Committee (2008-2012) an independent body to advise the UK Government on tackling climate change. The recommendations set out in their first report “Building a low-carbon economy” were adopted in 2009.

He became a cross bench member of the House of Lords in 2006.

Amongst his business roles, Lord Turner was at McKinsey&Co (1982-1995); was Vice-Chairman of Merrill Lynch Europe (2000-2006) and a Non-Executive Director of a number of companies, including Standard Chartered plc (2006-2008).

He is Senior Fellow at the Centre for Financial Studies (Frankfurt) and a Visiting Fellow at the People’s Bank of China School of Finance, Tsinghua University (Beijing). He writes regularly for Project Syndicate, and has published “Between Debt and the Devil” (Princeton 2015), and Economics after the Crisis (MIT 2012).

He is a Trustee Emeritus of the British Museum, honorary fellow of The Royal Society, and received an Honorary Degree from Cambridge University in 2017.

By this expert

Monetary Finance: Mechanics & Complications

Article | May 23, 2016

Eight years after the 2008 crisis the global economy is still stuck with low growth, too low inflation, and rising debt burdens. Massive monetary stimulus has failed to generate adequate demand, and some commentators suggest that we are “out of ammunition” with which to counter deflationary pressures.

How We Can Avoid Climate Catastrophe

Article | Nov 21, 2018

A new report shows an economically viable path to net-zero CO2 emissions in key industries by 2060

The Zero-Sum Economy

Article | Aug 20, 2018

The anthropologist David Graeber has argued that as much as 30% of all work is performed in “bullshit jobs,” which are unnecessary to produce truly valuable goods and services but arise from competition for income and status. But the deeper problem is that more and more economic activity performs a merely distributive function.

Capitalism in the age of robots: work, income and wealth in the 21st-century

Paper Conference paper | | May 2018

Adair Turner, Chair of the Institute for New Economic Thinking, Lecture at School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Washington DC April 10th 2018

Featuring this expert

India’s Leadership and Global Challenges of Climate and Finance

Podcasts Oct 26, 2023

If we’re going to address environmental catastrophe, we need to support each other on a global scale. Rob Johnson checks in with Adair Turner about his work, and practical solutions to address the climate crisis.

INET Live | Climate Debates

September 21, 2021 1:00pm - 3:00pm ET & September 22, 2021 9:00am - 12:00pm ET

Event Conference | Sep 21–22, 2021

Scientists have been sounding the alarm for decades about the severe global impact that rising temperatures will have on the environment, economies, health outcomes, and ultimately humanity’s long-term survival. Yet little has been done.

YSI 2020 Plenary: New Economic Questions

Young Scholars Initiative Virtual Plenary

YSI Event Plenary YSI | Nov 6–15, 2020

What are the 100 most pertinent economic questions facing our global societ?

NextGen

Private Debt Initiative

Event Conference | Hosted by Private Debt | Jun 20–21, 2019

Shaped by the 2008 financial crisis, a new generation of economists is expanding the boundaries of economic thinking on credit cycles, private debt, and financial stability.

Offsite links

Instability in a Monetary Economy

May 12, 2016 Chicago Booth School

"There are no riskless ways out"

Jan 24, 2016 Bilanz

Lord Turner on finance and inclusive economic transformation

Nov 24, 2015 Overseas Development Institute

Debt Déjà Vu

Oct 5, 2015 Project Syndicate

The Debt Business

Aug 25, 2015 BBC Radio 4

The Real Demographic Challenge

Aug 14, 2015 Project Syndicate

Greece for Grownups

Jul 12, 2015 Project Syndicate

China’s Real Reform Challenge

Jun 11, 2015 Project Syndicate

The Debt Dilemma

Apr 16, 2015 Project Syndicate

Caught in a Debt Trap

Mar 24, 2015 Cass Business School

Japan’s Accounting Problem

Mar 15, 2015 Project Syndicate

The Global Economy’s Chinese Headwinds

Feb 11, 2015 Project Syndicate

Progress and Monetisation

Feb 3, 2015 Berfrois

Have We Become Too Flexible?

Jan 21, 2015 Project Syndicate

Please Steal Our Fossil Fuels

Dec 22, 2014 Project Syndicate

Germany’s Secret Credit Addiction

Nov 9, 2014 Project Syndicate

China’s Balancing Act

Oct 7, 2014 Project Syndicate

Facing Reality in the Eurozone

Sep 7, 2014 Project Syndicate

When Fewer Is Better

Aug 12, 2014 Project Syndicate

The Trade Delusion

Jul 17, 2014 Project Syndicate

The Great Credit Mistake

Jun 5, 2014 Project Syndicate

The Perils of Financial Freedom

May 8, 2014 Project Syndicate

The High-Tech, High-Touch Economy

Apr 15, 2014 Project Syndicate

Rethinking the Monetization Taboo

Mar 17, 2015 Project Syndicate

In Praise of Fragmentation

Feb 17, 2014 Project Syndicate

Debt and Demand

Jan 9, 2014 Project Syndicate

Inequality by the Click

Jan 7, 2014 Project Syndicate

The Failure of Free-Market Finance

Sep 3, 2013 Project Syndicate

Overt Monetary Finance and Crisis Management

Aug 9, 2013 Project Syndicate

Too Much “Too Big to Fail”?

Sep 1, 2010 Project Syndicate

The Uses and Abuses of Economic Ideology

Jul 14, 2010 Project Syndicate