A key research interest was climate policy, in particular adaptation and geoengineering as ways to mitigate climate change's effects. He was an outspoken critic of the architecture of the Kyoto Protocol, and his paper "The Wrong Trousers: Radically Rethinking Climate Policy", co-written with Gwyn Prins of the London School of Economics has been widely cited on this topic. He was also interested in wicked problems, uncomfortable knowledge and clumsy solutions. He was principal investigator of the Oxford Programme for the Future of Cities and co-director of the Oxford Geoengineering Programme. In 2008, he was listed by "Wired" Magazine as one of the 15 people the next President should listen to and was recognized for his contribution to the joint award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).