Dr. Karlsson is President of the European Environmental Bureau, the largest environmental organisation in Europe. He is agronomist and holds a PhD in Environmental and Energy Systems. His research focuses on environmental policy and risk governance, and he has published articles on e.g. risk management, chemicals law, marine policy, and energy issues. Dr. Karlsson is Independent Specialist in the Swedish Government’s Cross-Party Committee on Environmental Objectives, member of the board of the Swedish Chemicals Agency, and of the advisory board at King’s College Centre for Risk Management in London. Dr. Karlsson has been a member of the European Resource Efficiency Platform and of two European Commission High Level Groups (on Competitiveness, Energy and the Environment, and on the Competitiveness of the European Chemicals Industry). He has been an expert in the Environment and Climate Advisory Group at the European Commission’s Research Directorate.
Between 2002 and 2014, Dr. Karlsson was president of the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, Sweden’s largest environmental organisation, a full-time position, and he has been chair and board member of several environmental organisations, as well as delegate to EU, WTO and UNEP ministerial and informal ministerial meetings.
Dr. Karlsson is senior lecturer in environmental sciences. His teaching since nearly 20 years focuses on environmental policy and natural resources management, including Swedish and EU politics and law. He has also conducted studies on sustainable rural development and natural resources conflict resolution in e.g. East Africa.
Mikael Karlsson is 44 years and lives in Stockholm with his wife and two children.