Justin Dargin 

Justin Dargin is a senior visiting fellow at the Middle East Council of Global Affairs. He has worked extensively on a multitude of issues relating to the intersection of the global and Middle East energy sectors, geopolitics, and climate change. 

As a senior MENA energy and climate scholar at the University of Oxford, Dargin’s research focused on the establishment of viable macro-economic decarbonization pathways for energy-rich MENA countries. Prior to that, he was a  MENA Fulbright scholar and Kennedy School fellow at Harvard University, where he pioneered the first policy prescriptions for Gulf carbon market development.  

Dargin has provided strategic counsel to various energy companies, governments, and multilateral organizations on energy investment strategies and decarbonization efforts. His previous roles also include legal advisor at OPEC and fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. 

Dargin has won several awards for his research including the Harvard Arab Alumni Association award, the St. Gallen Symposium Wings of Excellence Award, and the UN Sustainable Endowment’s Building a Clean Energy Future Award. He also spearheaded the creation of an award-winning NGO ensuring access to clean energy and sustainable development in the developing world.  

Dargin’s publications include over a hundred articles and book chapters, as well as several authored books. His forthcoming book is entitled The Gulf’s Climate Reckoning: Decarbonization, Development, and the Future of the Petro-States (Cambridge University Press, 2025). 

Dargin’s analysis has also been featured by global media outlets such as Time Magazine, and the Financial Times, and the New York Times, among others.