Nick Bainton recently joined RegNet as Associate Professor. As an anthropologist, he has spent the last 20 years leading research on the social and political impacts of resource extraction in the Pacific Islands region and beyond. Nick’s current research is focussed on one of the greatest governance challenges of our time: the impacts of supplying the raw materials needed for global energy transitions under already existing conditions of climate change. His most recent book deals with the persistent absence of the state around extractive projects: The Absent Presence of the State in Large-Scale Resource Extraction Projects. In a past life, he spent 7 years working in the mining industry, and this unique insider perspective now informs his critical scholarship.