Anton Cartwright is a green economy researcher at the African Centre for Cities (UCT) a role that, apart from teaching and research, sees him involved in the development of Cape Town's green economy. Previously he convened the City of Cape Town's climate change think tank. His work focuses on the application of economics to Africa’s urban transition, green finance, environmental degradation and poverty alleviation and the implication of these issues for the discipline of economics itself. He is registered for a PhD at the University of Cape Town. He is also working with the Global Commission on Climate and Economy and the African Progress Panel on the “New Climate Economy” proposition for African cities.
He is a senior associate of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership and an associate of the Stockholm Environment Institute, where he is an editor of the Economics of Climate Adaptation section of the weAdapt knowledge portal.
He continues to run the development economics consultancy, Econologic, that he founded in 2003. In this capacity he has completed assignments for the World Bank, OECD, South Africa's National Treasury, The European Union, The Food and Agriculture Organization, DfID, WWF, IIED the Fairtrade Foundation and a range of local and international companies, NGOs and government departments. The focus of his work has been on sustainable trade, economic risk, local economic development and the green economy. In 2016 he was appointed to work with the IPCC on their report into the impacts of 1.5°C on urban development pathways.
He is the founding Director of the not for profit organization Promoting Access to Carbon Equity (PACE) and South Africa's first voluntary carbon market registry, Credible Carbon which has raised over R7 million for poverty alleviating carbon mitigation projects in South Africa's rural and informal communities trhough the carbon market. Credible Carbon was nominated as a finalists in the Climate Change category of the Enviropaedia/SABC3 EcoLogic Awards 2014, and selected as one of CapeTalk’s “business accelerator” projects in 2015.
Anton serves as chairman of the board of iKhaya le Themba, an aftercare centre founded in 2001. iKhaya le Themba currently cares for 96 children infected and affected by HIV in Imizamo Yethu, Hout Bay. iKhaya le Themba is committed to excellence in South Africa's youth and to authentic cross-cultural communities of faith.