[3][4] Hepburn attended Camberwell Grammar School and received his undergraduate education in law and engineering at the University of Melbourne in Australia and his master's degree and doctorate in economics from the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.
[5] Hepburn was an advisor to the former role of UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.
[15] Hepburn is an expert on economically-informed global environmental policy, especially government responses to climate change, in both academic journals[16] and national news periodicals.
[17] This has included novel ideas to find “sensitive intervention points” in his role chairing the UK Committee on Climate Change Policy Advisory Group,[18] and to reduce emissions influencing consumers away from climate change drivers, such as introducing a meat tax.
[20] The institution is funded by the UK government as a part of its mission to reduce climate change.