Dr. Paul Tobin is a Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor in Politics at the University of Manchester, specialising in environmental, European, and comparative politics, and public policy. He is currently the Convenor of the Manchester Environmental Politics Group, and the PhD Director for the Politics Department.

Paul is active in supporting policymakers' and communities' work on climate change, regularly meeting with local councils, government departments, MPs and Ministers, faith groups, and NGOs.

Paul’s research has examined a variety of interconnected topics, such as:

The empirical realities of Polycentric Climate Governance (free to read Introduction to a Special Issue of seven articles)

The rise of Anti-Net Zero Populism in the UK (Open Access)

The role of ‘climate intermediaries’ in policymaking (Open Access Introduction to a Special Issue of seven articles)

For the full list of his publications, see ‘Research output’ below.

Paul has co-edited three books; the first entitled The Impact of the Economic Crisis on European Environmental Policy, and the second, Climate Governance Across the Globe: Pioneers, Leaders and Followers. His most recent book, entitled Stability and Politicization in Climate Governance, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2025.

Paul's research has been supported by over £400,000 in research funding, most recently via an ESRC New Investigator grant on polycentric and multi-level climate governance.

Paul believes in a close link between research and teaching. He is a Senior Fellow of the HEA/Advance HE, and has won several teaching prizes, including 'The Best Humanities Lecturer' and 'The Most Inspiring Lecturer' at Manchester, awarded by the University of Manchester Students' Union. 

Currently, Paul is an Editor of Manchester University's Press European Politics Series - do email him if you are considering submitting a book proposal to the series. Outside Manchester, Paul has been the Honorary Secretary of the Political Studies Association, as well as a member of its Senior Leadership Team and Executive Committee.

Paul has been a Visiting Research Fellow at Stockholm University, Sweden, Heidelberg University in Germany, Lund University in Sweden, and at the Institute for European Studies at Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium.

Teaching

Paul runs the PhD module POLI80080 Research Design, and the Third Year undergraduate module POLI30032 Politics of the European Union. 

PhD Supervision

Paul is currently supervising:

• Yeqi Jin's PhD, co-supervised with Dr. Silke Trommer, on climate adaptation and Intergovernmental Organisations;
• Yixiao Zhang's PhD, co-supervised with Prof. Mat Paterson, on US and Chinese climate action;
• Elizabeth Lansell's PhD, co-supervised with Prof. Stefan Bouzarovski and Dr. Faye Wade (Edinburgh) on energy, retrofitting, and intermediaries;
• Ziyang Guo's PhD, co-supervised with Prof. Mat Paterson, European climate governance.

Previously, Paul supervised Dr. Joshua Barritt with Dr. Carl Death, whose PhD was on political ecology, marine conservation and public policy.

Paul does not have workload available to supervise any more PhD scholars, and will not be able to consider supervisory requests.

Paul has been proud to win a number of prizes during his career across Research, Teaching, and Leadership in Academia.

Research

The Journal of European Public Policy 'Best Paper 2020'

The INOGOV ‘Best Paper 2014-2018’

The UACES 'Best PhD Thesis Prize'

Teaching

The University of Manchester Faculty of Humanities 'Outstanding Teaching Award'

The University of Manchester Students' Union 'Most Inspiring Lecturer Prize'

The University of Manchester Students' Union 'Best Humanities Lecturer Prize'

The BISA-Higher Education Academy 'Post-Graduate Who Teaches of the Year'

The York University Students' Union 'Post-Graduate Who Teaches of the Year'

The University of York 'Politics Department Teaching Prize'

Leadership in Academia

The University of Manchester ‘Best HNAP Workshop’

The PSA 'Specialist Group of the Year'