James is a Hallsworth Research Fellow at the School of Social Sciences (SOSS) and the Sustainable Consumption Institute (SCI). He is a political economist with a focus on the intersection of fiscal, monetary and climate policy. He is a member of the Politics Department's Environmental Political Group and the Manchester China Institute (MCI). Outside of Manchester, James is a co-convenor of the Political Studies Association (PSA) Environmental Politics Specialist Group. 

James joined the institute after completing his PhD at the University of Sheffield and the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI) where his thesis analysed the politics of the electric vehicle transition in Germany and the UK. He has held visiting positions at the University of Bergen (2022), the University of Toronto (2023), the University of Melbourne (2024), the University of Ottawa (2025) and Peking University (2025). 

His work has been published in various leading journals, including New Political Economy, Global Environmental Politics, Environmental Politics, Energy Research & Social Science, Competition and Change and Journal of Cleaner Production, amongst others. 

James' research has several strands which he has published. These include:

The political economy of climate politics and the green transition, with a particular emphasis on the electric vehicle (EV) transition. His research had previously focused on the Global North, particularly Australia, Canada, Europe, the Nordics and the UK, but is now focused on the Global South, particularly China, Brazil, India and the BRICS countries.

Green monetary policy and the role of central banks in the transition to Net Zero and their relationship with the state and the financial system.

Climate/nature-related financial risks (C/NRFRs) to financial stability and the financialization of nature, with particular reference to green finance. 

Critiques of capitalism's relationship with nature through ideas of post-growth, degrowth and a steady state economy. 

The climate and environmental impacts of football and sport more broadly.

James is the author of forthcoming books on the political economy of the EV transition in Cambridge University Press, the environmental unsustainability of football with Manchester University Press and the inflationary impacts of climate change with Cambridge University Press.