From 2007-2014, he advised members of the House and Senate and supported many notable legislative efforts, including serving as a lead author of the Waxman-Markey climate and energy bill that passed the House in 2009. He was also a senior policy advisor on the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming as well as the House Natural Resources Committee.

Phillips was a business and economic development volunteer with the Peace Corps in Mongolia. He received a bachelor’s degree from the Milwaukee School of Engineering and a master’s degree in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Recent work by Phillips includes:

• Report: Kenya’s E-Mobility Knowledge Roadmap: Research Priorities to Support Economic and System Transformation
• In the news: Is Altérra’s Effort to Mobilize Climate Finance for Global South Working?” 
• Op-ed: Roadmap for how United States-India Critical Minerals Framework Can Deliver Results
• Policy Brief: Stabilizing Production under Climate Stress: Evidence from Small-Scale Solar Irrigation in Kenya
• Journal Article: The Viability of Solar Mini-grid Irrigation as a Replacement for Diesel Technology in Ethiopia
• Policy Brief: Cold Chains, from Net to Fork: Evidence from Kenya on Livelihoods and Community Resilience
• Event proceedings: Incentivizing Grid Reliability—Roundtable Discussion Takeaways and Path Forward
• White Paper: Incentivizing Grid Reliability: A Framework for Performance-Linked Electricity Improvements in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
• Event proceedings: Energy Transitions & Investment in Emerging Markets: Navigating Shifting Undercurrents
• Op-ed: My House is Covered in Sludge. Don’t Tell Me We Can’t Build Better in Western NC
• Journal Article: Estimating Lost Dividends from Incomplete Energy Access Transitions
• Blog: Adaptation and resilience investment: How do we get the capital it needs
• Working Paper: Resilience Monetization and Credits Initiative: A Background Paper
• Blog: The Emergence of ‘Resilience Credits’: How a New Asset Class Can Unlock Investment in Climate Resilience — And Why Impact Measurement Will be Key to its Success
• Report (contribution): The State of Blended Finance 2023: Climate Edition
• Journal Article: Barriers to off-grid energy development: Evidence from a comparative survey of private sector energy service providers in Eastern Africa
• Report: Mobilizing new climate investment models
• Report: Inclusive low-carbon transitions for sustainable development in the global south
• Policy Brief: Making clean energy transitions more inclusive: Evidence, knowledge gaps and policy options in low-income economies
• Blog: Climate Finance Myth Busting
• Op-ed: JETPs and other ways to shift climate finance toward low-income countries
• Policy Brief: Can Time-of-Use Tariffs Increase the Financial Viability of Mini-Grids?
• Policy Brief: Climate Finance for Just Transitions
• Policy Brief: Barriers and Policy Solutions for Off-Grid Energy Development
• In the news: How to Transition to a Clean Energy Future
• Policy Brief: Improving Rural Livelihoods, Energy Access, and Resilience Where It’s Needed Most: The Case for Solar Mini-Grid Irrigation in Ethiopia
• Working Paper: Barriers to off-grid energy development: Evidence from a comparative survey of private sector energy service providers in East Africa
• Report: Catalysing Climate Finance for Low-Carbon Agriculture Enterprises
• Report: COVID-19 and Distributed Renewables: How the Crisis Has Affected the Sector and What It Means for People, the Planet, and the Future of Energy Access
• Blog: How finance, ag-tech and more can speed the energy transition – 4 experts explain
• Blog: Climate finance meets low-carbon agtech
• Blog: Net Zero may be coming. But America is a fossil fuel bank to the developing world today.
• Policy Brief: Modernizing Energy Access Finance, Part 2—Balancing Competition and Subsidy: Assessing Mini-Grid Incentive Programs in sub-Saharan Africa
• Blog: Lessons from the proliferating mini-grid incentive programs in Africa
• Report: Business model innovations for utility and mini-grid integration: Insights from the Utilities 2.0 initiative in Uganda
• Policy Brief: Lessons for Modernizing Energy Access Finance, Part 1: What the Electrification Experiences of Seven Countries Tell Us about the Future of Connection Costs, Subsidies, and Integrated Planning
• Blog: An off-grid energy future requires learning from the past
• Report: The Energy Access Dividend: Accelerating off-grid solutions and bolstering reliability can generate big gains in Honduras and Haiti
• Report: The Energy Access Dividend in Honduras and Haiti
• In the News: The Powerlessness of Nigeria’s Tech Startups
• Publication: New Data and Technologies are Transforming Energy Access – Public Policy Must Catch Up
• Policy Brief: Profits and Productivity: Stimulating Electricity Demand in Low-Income Settings
• Publication: Research Agenda on Electricity Access and Productive Use
• Publication: The True Cost of Solar Tariffs in East Africa
• Publication: Harnessing the Power of Data: Sustainable Energy Transitions Initiative Conference
• Publication: Can a Modernized U.S. Development Finance Institution Help Close the Energy Financing Gap?
• Essay: Seven Takeaways from the Energy Access Launch
• Op-ed: Opinion: Solar tariffs to affect world’s poorest