The founder and former managing director of UK-based climate campaigners Sandbag has been appointed to lead the new European arm of green NGO Environmental Defense Fund (EDF).

Bryony Worthington has taken up the role of executive director and will help the non-profit “bring a fresh voice to the European environmental debate – a voice for practical solutions grounded in science and harnessing the power of markets,” said EDF board chair Carl Ferenbach.

New York-headquartered Environmental Defense Fund focuses on four areas globally: climate and energy, oceans, ecosystems, and human health.

However, in Europe the organisation will initially aim to develop and implement solutions in the areas of marine fisheries and clean energy.

Worthington, who was a lead author of the UK’s 2008 Climate Change Act, which established the country’s binding target to cut GHG emissions by 80% below 1990 by mid-century, will also work with former Energy Minister Greg Barker, who has been appointed to sit on EDF Europe’s board.

Worthington was in 2010 awarded a life peerage by the Labour Party in Britain’s House of Lords.

By Mike Szabo – mike@carbon-pulse.com