Brendan F.D. Barrett is an academic programme officer at the United Nations University in Tokyo, Japan. He is currently the head of UNU Online Learning, located in the Media Studio. He has worked within the United Nations system since April 1995, first with the United Nations Environment Programme and then with the United Nations University. His main research interests lie in exploring how to use new media in order to communicate complex environmental issues to society. He is a member of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) Commission on Communication and Education. He was also instrumental in the establishment of the Global Virtual University. He is the co-author or editor of three books as follows: Ecological Modernization and Japan, Barrett, B.F.D (ed), published by Routledge Curzon in March 2005. Human Development and the Environment: Challenges for the United Nations in the New Millennium, Van Ginkel, H., Barrett, B., Court, J. and Velasquez G (eds), published in 2002 by UNU Press, Tokyo. Environmental Policy and Impact Assessment in Japan, co-authors Barrett B.F.D and Therivel R, published by the Routledge Publishing Company, Chapman and Hall Ltd. in Jan. 1991. Has written numerous articles on environmental topics including: Implications of the Information Society for Local Environmental Governance and the Monitoring of Environmental Change, Barrett, B., UNU/IAS Working Paper No.97, January 2002, Tokyo. 'The Local Agenda 21 Platform for Sustainable Development: an Evaluation of the Recent Experience in Japan and the UK' (with Mikoto Usui), Cross-Cultural Business and Cultural Studies 5 (1), 2001. Completed his Ph.D. at Oxford Brookes University in 1997 entitled Local Agenda 21 and Environmental Management in Japan and the United Kingdom – From Fragmentation to Integration.
