Newell is a Professor of International Development at the University of East Anglia. He is specialist in the political economy of environment and development and has worked for a range of research, NGO and international organisations. His books include Climate for Change: Non-State Actors and the Global Politics of the Greenhouse (CUP, 2000), The Business of Global Environmental Governance (MIT 2005) Rights, Resources and the Politics of Accountability (Zed books, 2006), Governing Climate Change (Routledge, 2010) and Climate Capitalism (CUP, 2010).