Selam Kidane Abebe

Senior Research Fellow in Net Zero Law at the Oxford Net Zero Programme at the University of Oxford

Selam Kidane Abebe is a Senior Research Fellow in Net Zero Law at the Oxford Net Zero Programme at the University of Oxford. She is also a member of Oxford's Sustainable Law Programme. Her research focuses on net zero governance, which includes developing legal frameworks for achieving net zero objectives. She also serves as a legal adviser to the African Group of Negotiators (AGN) for the negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Selam has extensive experience working on multilateral environmental agreements. She led the legal and procedural negotiations of the Paris Agreement for the African Group and negotiated the rule book of the Paris Agreement. Selam serves as an expert in different multilateral constituted bodies under the UN. Since 2020, She has been a member of the Paris Agreement Compliance Committee (Article 15 Committee), facilitating implementation and promoting countries’ compliance with the obligations of the Agreement. She is also an advisor to African constituency Board Members of the Green Climate Fund (GCF). In addition, in 2024, Selam was appointed as the Alternate Board Member of the Loss and Damage Fund Board. The Fund supports developing countries in responding to the economic and non-economic loss and damage caused by the adverse consequences of climate change.

She formerly worked for Ethiopia's Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, and Forests as the head of the environmental law and policy department, overseeing the design of the country's environmental laws, policies, and climate plans. She earned her PhD in Law from the University of Reading as a Leverhulme Scholar in Climate Justice.