Peter Betts

Peter Betts (3 March 1959 – 21 October 2023) was a British civil servant and climate negotiator. In 2015 he helped draft the Paris Agreement, acting as chief negotiator for the European Union.

Early life and education Born in Battersea, London, to George Betts, a member of the fire brigade salvage corps, and Joyce Pedder, a welfare worker, he attended Emanuel School and Mansfield College, Oxford, where he studied history.

During his tenure, Betts played a major role in the Paris Agreement negotiations, addressing complex issues such as precise wording and legal interpretations, which were critical to the agreement's success. The book was praised, with Fiona Harvey writing in The Guardian: “Part memoir and part penetrating analysis, with lessons for the future as well as revelations from the past, in some of its best passages this book reads like a briskly paced thriller.”

Personal life In 2006 Betts married Fiona MacGregor, now a chief executive at the Regulator of Social Housing. They had no children.