Geeta Batra is the Chief Evaluation Officer and Deputy Director of the Independent Evaluation Office of GEF. She has worked at the World Bank and IFC for 20 years on private sector issues and in evaluation. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics.

Ryan Brightwell is Researcher and Editor at BankTrack, the Netherlands-based civil society organisation monitoring the environmental and social impacts of private sector banks, and coordinates its human rights campaign and green bonds market monitoring. He has previously worked in ethical finance for The Co-operative Bank and as an independent consultant.

Stuart Bruce is a London-based legal practitioner specialising in international dispute resolution and an international law and policy academic with expertise in international energy, environmental and climate change law. His research and advocacy focuses on environmental disputes, global energy governance and the sustainable energy transition.

Halvard Buhaug leads several research projects on security dimensions of climate change, funded by the European Commission, the Research Council of Norway and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His most recent research investigates how agricultural performance and food price shocks affect dynamics of social unrest.

Paul Bunje is the Principal and Senior Scientist, Energy and Environment group at XPRIZE. He has served as the founding Executive Director of the University of California, Los Angeles, Center for Climate Change Solutions and as the Managing Director of the Los Angeles Regional Collaborative for Climate Action and Sustainability.

Germana Canzi is Head of Programme and Marketing at Climate Strategies and has been involved in climate and energy policy since 2001. She has worked as a senior analyst, adviser and project manager for a variety of non-profit organisations and has a background in business journalism.

Christa Clapp is Research Director for Climate Finance at CICERO, leading the work stream on climate risk for investors and the award winning green bond ratings. She is also a Lead Author for the IPCC 6th assessment report on finance and investment

Joan Clos is UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director, UN-Habitat. Prior to joining the United Nations in 2010, he was the Spanish ambassador to Turkey and Azerbaijan and was twice elected Mayor of Barcelona. He is currently the Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, Habitat III.

Emily Cox is an energy policy researcher with the Sussex Energy Group. Her PhD examined energy security in the context of a transition to a low-carbon energy system. She has also worked as an energy policy researcher for the Royal Academy of Engineering, E.ON, and Oxford University.

Elliot Diringer is Executive Vice President of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES), helping direct its research, policy, outreach and communications efforts. He previously served as Vice President for International Strategies at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, C2ES’s predecessor organisation.

Patricia Espinosa of Mexico was appointed Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in July 2016. Ambassador of Mexico to Germany since 2012 and from 2001 to 2002, Ms. Espinosa was Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mexico from 2006 to 2012, bringing more than 30 years of experience at the highest levels in international relations, specialising in climate change, global governance, sustainable development, gender equality and protection of human rights.

Nick Eyre is Professor of Energy and Climate Policy at the University of Oxford, leading the energy research programme in its Environmental Change Institute. He is Jackson Senior Research Fellow at Oriel College. He is also a Co-Director in the UK Energy Research Centre and of the Oxford Martin Programme on Integrating Renewable Energy.

Emily Farnworth is a Director and Head of Climate Change at the World Economic Forum, based in Geneva, Switzerland. Prior to joining the World Economic Forum Emily set up and led the award winning campaign RE100, aimed at influential companies committed to 100% renewable power. She has more than 20 years of experience working with leading businesses and governments on climate action.

Hanna Fekete is a Founding Partner of NewClimate Institute. She follows the UNFCCC negotiations and works on the evaluation and quantification of energy and climate policy impacts. She is part of the core team of the Climate Action Tracker and contributed to the UNEP Emissions Gap Report 2014 and 2015.

Elisabeth Anne Gilmore is an interdisciplinary researcher who works on issues related to environment, energy and security. Her most recent efforts have focused on forecasting the long-term implications of socioeconomic development and climate change on civil war.

Rob Gross is Reader in Energy Policy and Technology and Director of the Centre for Energy Policy and Technology (ICEPT) at Imperial College London. He is Policy Director of Imperial’s Energy Futures Lab. He is a Co-Director of the UK Energy Research Centre and has managed the UKERC Technology and Policy Assessment function since 2004

Håvard Hegre is Dag Hammarskjöld Professor of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University and Adjunct Research Professor at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO). His research interests are conflict forecasting, the study of the relationship between development, democratisation and conflict, as well as how climate change affects conflict. He is currently building a research- and data-based early-warning system for political violence in Africa.

Cornie Huizenga is the Secretary General of the Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport (SLoCaT), the largest multi-stakeholder partnership working on sustainable transport. The SLoCaT Partnership plays a lead role in the integration of sustainable, low-carbon transport in global policies on sustainable development and climate change, especially the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

Ban Ki-moon is the eighth Secretary-General of the United Nations. His priorities have been to mobilise world leaders around a set of new global challenges, from climate change and economic upheaval to pandemics and increasing pressures involving food, energy and water. He took office on 1 January 2007. On 21 June 2011, he was unanimously re-elected by the General Assembly and will continue to serve until 31 December 2016.

A leading advocate for sustainable development and recipient of many awards, Rachel Kyte drives SEforALL’s work to mobilise action towards its 2030 goals on universal energy access, energy efficiency and renewables, as well as the new global goal on sustainable energy. Her previous roles have included World Bank Group Special Envoy for Climate Change. 


Walter Kälin is Professor Emeritus (University of Bern, Switzerland). He acted as Envoy of the Nansen Initiative on disaster-induced cross-border displacement (2012–2015) and is a former member of the UN Human Rights Committee (2003–2008 / 2012–2014) as well as the former Representative of the UN Secretary-General on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons.

Hoesung Lee is Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Endowed Chair Professor at Korea University Graduate School of Energy and Environment, Seoul, Korea. His research encompasses the economics of climate change, energy and sustainable development. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Korean Academy of Environmental Sciences, council member of the Global Green Growth Institute, and a member of the Asian Development Bank President’s Advisory Board on Climate Change and Sustainable Development.

Abdeladim Lhafi is the Commissioner of COP22 and Morocco's High Commissioner for Water, Forests and Combating Desertification. He has held several positions, including Secretary of State in charge of Agricultural Development, Ambassador of Morocco in Germany and Governor representing Morocco at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in Rome. He was recently elected President of the Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS).

Estherine Lisinge-Fotabong is Director of the Programme Implementation and Coordination Directorate at the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency, which is the technical body of the African Union. She has over 25 years of experience in environmental law, policy design and project implementation across Africa.

Rafael Marques is a Managing Director of Environmental Financial Products (EFP). He was Senior Vice President of the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), where he was actively involved in the feasibility, design and launch of CCX.

Jennifer Morgan, together with Bunny McDiarmid, became Executive Director of Greenpeace International as of 4 April 2016. She was the former Global Director of the Climate Program at the World Resources Institute, Global Climate Change Director at Third Generation Environmentalism (E3G), and led the Global Climate Change Program of Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF).

Helen Mountford is Vice President, Climate & Economics at the World Resources Institute. She is also the Program Director for the New Climate Economy (NCE) initiative, a major international initiative that provides independent and authoritative evidence on the relationship between actions which can strengthen economic performance and reduce the risk of dangerous climate change.

Stephen O’Brien became the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator in June 2015. As a former Conservative Member of Parliament in the UK for 16 years, he was the Prime Minister’s Envoy and Special Representative for the Sahel 2012-2015. Prior to that he served as the Coalition Government’s Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development and before that in a succession of economic, health, care and education shadow Ministerial roles.

Ian Parry is the Principal Environmental Fiscal Policy Expert in the Fiscal Affairs Department of the IMF. He has published widely on climate, environmental, energy and transport policy issues. Previously he held the Allen Kneese Chair in Environmental Economics at Resources for the Future. He obtained his PhD in economics from the University of Chicago.

Natalie Samarasinghe is Executive Director of the United Nations Association – UK and the first woman to hold this role. She is a trustee of the Association for Citizenship Teaching, a member of the Executive Committee of the World Federation of UNAs, a member of the Steering Committee for the International Coalition for the Responsibility to Protect and an advisor to the Board of the Sri Lanka Campaign. In 2013, she co-founded the 1 for 7 Billion campaign, which seeks a fair, open and inclusive process to select the UN Secretary-General.

Richard L. Sandor is Chairman and CEO of Environmental Financial Products. He is the Aaron Director Lecturer in Law and Economics at the University of Chicago Law School and a Visiting Fellow with the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at Oxford University. He was named by TIME Magazine a “Hero of the Planet” and a “Hero of the Environment” for his work as the “Father of Carbon Trading.”

Lambert Schneider is an Associate at the Stockholm Environment Institute and a member of the CDM Executive Board. He has been involved in UNFCCC negotiations for 15 years and conducts research on international climate policy, carbon markets and GHG accounting.

Varun Sivaram is the Philip D. Reed Fellow for Science and Technology at the Council on Foreign Relations. He teaches Clean Energy Innovation at Georgetown University and is a Nonresident Fellow at the Columbia University Center for Global Energy Policy. He is the author of the upcoming book, Taming the Sun: How Innovation Can Harness Solar Energy to Save the Planet (MIT University Press, February 2018).

Roger B. Street leads the strategic and technical programme of UKCIP based out of the Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford. Foci for much of his responsibilities relates to improving understanding of the adaptation process, supporting adaptation decision-making and enhancing engagement and knowledge exchange to inform decisions and research.

Rory Sullivan is CEO, Chronos Sustainability and Chief Technical Advisor, Transition Pathway Initiative (TPI). He is an internationally recognised expert on climate finance and responsible investment. He is the author/editor of eight books and of many papers and reports on these and related issues

Pieter P. Tans has studied man-made climate change since 1972, after seeing the first ten years of the Keeling Curve, which shows the steady rise of carbon dioxide as measured on Mauna Loa, Hawai’i. His group has been measuring the major greenhouse gases for several decades.

Juha I. Uitto is Director of the Independent Evaluation Office of GEF. He has worked extensively as evaluator and researcher in environment and development with the GEF, UNDP, the United Nations University and others. He holds a PhD in Social and Economic Geography.

Eric Usher has 25 years of experience in the sustainable energy and finance sectors. Prior to heading the UNEP FI Secretariat in Geneva, he was responsible for a programme portfolio advancing new public/private instruments for financing cleaner energy infrastructure and improving energy access.