Speakers

Aniket Shah is a practitioner in the space of sustainable finance, whose career has bridged the public and private sectors. Aniket is the Head of Sustainable Investing at OppenheimerFunds, a leading global asset manager. In this role, Shah is responsible for working with OppenheimerFunds’ portfolio managers and investment product specialists to further integrate sustainable investing practices across all aspects of the firm’s business activities to better serve investors. From 2014-2017, Aniket Shah served as the Program Leader of the Financing for Sustainable Development Initiative at the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN).

Mark has served as Executive Director of C40 since December 2013, during which time the organisation has grown from 63 to 96 of world's greatest cities. Mark is proud to head a fast-growing team of 150 staff in supporting bold, collaborative mayors to demonstrate that tackling climate change will deliver economically stronger and more equitable cities. Prior to joining C40 Mark was Director at pioneering engineering and design firm, Arup, and before that was a senior adviser to the Mayor of London, in which role the London Evening Standard described him as “the intellectual force behind Ken Livingstone’s drive to make London a leading light of the battle against global warming." He reports to C40 Chairperson and Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, and C40 Board President, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. He believes that work should be fun, but that there is always time for music, narrowboats, and places you can get to by bicycle.

Working for GIZ since 2000, first in Chile and Macedonia on decentralization, municipal and regional economic development, Joachim has nine years of experience within the Technical Department in different positions advising on governance issues, organizational development and change management. He is a Co-author of GIZ’s Capacity WORKS management model on how to achieve cooperation.

Sonja is a freelance energy, climate and environment journalist based in Brussels. She writes for Energy Post, an independent platform for European energy news and analysis that she helped found in 2013, as well as Nature Climate Change, Platts, ENDS Europe and others. She was the environment correspondent for online broadcaster viEUws.eu from 2010-16. Sonja regularly moderates high-level debates and conferences on energy, climate and environment. Before going freelance in 2010, Sonja was the lead climate correspondent for environmental news service ENDS Europe for four years. She won a BBC-sponsored “Young Broadcaster of the Year Award” in 2005. Sonja has an MSc in Science Communication from Imperial College London and a BA in Biological Sciences from the University of Oxford. She grew up in the Netherlands, Japan and Taiwan, and speaks fluent English and Dutch, with a good command of French and German.

Josué Tanaka leads since 2006 the EBRD activities to scale up climate financing in central and Eastern Europe and in southern and eastern Mediterranean countries. Cumulative EBRD climate financing at end 2017 reached €26.2 billion in over 110,000 projects and subprojects for a total value of over €148 billion of which two thirds in the private sector. This includes a specific focus on the financing of cities infrastructure and services with cumulative EBRD investments of €7.3 billion in over 430 projects in over 200 cities.

As one of the founding members of the IFC Cities Initiative, Lisa focuses on growing IFC’s Global Cities Practice. For the last two years, Lisa has also been engaged in establishing IFC’s Cities business in Africa, including in IDA countries. Lisa manages IFC’s Cities Practice Group drawing representatives from across the WBG and is responsible for key relationships with relevant IBRD GPs and external partners such as 100 Resilient Cities, Rockefeller, and C40.

As Vice President, Resilience Finance, Liz leads 100 Resilient Cities’ work with member cities and partners to overcome the financial challenges of resilience urban project development and implementation. Liz brings over 20 years of project finance experience, having developed, structured and priced transactions on behalf of cities, states, governmental agencies and not-for-profit entities. She completed over USD$30bn in senior managed transactions including the financing of energy distribution and generation assets, roads, water and sewer, solid waste facilities, not-for-profit hospitals, and has worked on innovative finance solutions including tax-equity flip structures, commodities and interest rate hedges, catastrophe bonds and pension financing solutions.

Dr. Holmes Hummel founded Clean Energy Works to accelerate investments in the clean energy economy through utility financing. As a champion for Pay As You Save (PAYS), Dr. Hummel won three international searches for breakthrough climate strategies, including the FiRe Award for high-impact innovation from Bloomberg New Energy Finance. PAYS for Clean Transport was endorsed by the Global Lab for Climate Finance as a top climate finance instrument in 2018. Previously, Dr. Hummel served as a Senior Policy Advisor at the U.S. Department of Energy, and among other responsibilities, led the agency’s finance working group. Today serves on the board of Cornerstone Capital, an advisory firm specialising in the development of values-aligned investment portfolios. Dr. Hummel holds a doctorate degree from Stanford University for research on global energy technology scenarios for climate stabilization.

Iain is a senior vice president in the Green Investment Group's Energy Solutions team, with particular responsibility for public sector investment. He has been involved in financing PPP infrastructure and low carbon projects for over 20 years in debt, equity and advisory, developing financial and commercial structures for cities and central government. Iain developed the bank's “Green Loan for Local Authorities”, providing financial solutions and funding to city energy efficiency projects including Glasgow and Kent. In his current role he works alongside central government departments and cities to help them develop and fund their low carbon infrastructure programmes including ESCO energy services agreements and smart city solutions.

Ms. Susan Goeransson is the Director for the Municipal and Environmental Infrastructure team at the EBRD, covering water, wastewater, waste management, urban transport and district heating projects located in eastern Europe, the CIS, Turkey and the southern and eastern Mediterranean countries. Having joined EBRD in 1993 she has worked in a variety of sectors, including infrastructure, agribusiness and general industry. Prior to joining EBRD, she worked at the Overseas Private Investment Corporation as a senior banker and the Securities and Exchange Commission as a financial analyst. She has a Master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and is a chartered financial analyst. She has a joint Bachelor’s degree in urban studies and history from Northwestern University.

Drazen leads the urban development and energy efficiency sector at the GCF: his work is focusing on technical reviews of concept notes and funding proposals throughout the project and review cycle; delivering strategic pipeline development focusing on green and resilient cities, while contributing towards a broad policy deliberation on cities and climate change; and challenges related to scaling up climate finance and transformative transactions. He is responsible for a GCF portfolio of over 30 projects valued at $1.1 billion, at different stage of development, funding considerations and implementation; and actively engaged in conceptual work on de-risking structures and transformative interventions in the urban and energy efficiency context at GCF. Previously at the Asian Development Bank, Drazen was directly responsible for programmatic and project design activities as well as loan origination and existing project portfolio exceeding US$3 billion in volume.

Constanze Haug is Head of the Secretariat of the International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP). ICAP brings together more than thirty governments and public authorities to share knowledge on and experiences with emissions trading, and facilitate the alignment of carbon markets going forward. Among a number of other publications and studies, each year ICAP publishes its status report with the latest developments in emissions trading around the world. Prior to join the ICAP Secretariat, Constanze completed a PhD in climate policy in Amsterdam and consulted with the World Bank, the UNFCCC Secretariat and the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Rishika Das Roy is a consultant with the Urban Resilience Portfolio at Oxford Policy Management India with experience in design and implementation of programmes ranging from climate mainstreaming, Climate Adaptation Governance, Urban Resilience & Governance, institutional strengthening and urban sanitation. Her urban governance experience includes Project Management for the Technical Support Unit embedded within the and Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) and the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (MoDWS) for the Government of India. At OPM she is part of DFID’s multi-year Climate Proofing Growth and Development (Action on Climate Today ) programme which works on climate proofing multiple sectors across five countries in the region. She worked on mainstreaming climate change policy into development planning & policy at the Grantham Institute of Climate Change and by training has a MSc in Environment and International Development from LSE.

Dr. Guido Schmidt-Traub is Executive Director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, which operates under the auspices of the UN Secretary-General to support the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Agreement. Guido leads the SDSN’s policy work, including on long-term pathways for sustainable land-use and food systems, financing for development, and the SDG Index and Dashboards. He serves on the Governing Council of Future Earth and other advisory bodies.

Ms Chumisa Thengwa is a Professional Natural Scientist with a Masters in Environmental Management and 16 years experience in the environmental regulatory field. Eleven of those years have been spent in local government where she currently leads the biodiversity, climate change, restoration ecology and renewable energy functions. In this role, Ms Thengwa oversees the development of an integrated implementation plan for the 10 theme Durban Climate Change Strategy, the City’s long term climate change response. Working for the City of Durban in South Africa, a member of C40, Ms Thengwa represents Durban in two of the C40 networks namely, the Urban 20 and the C40 Cities Finance Facility. At a national level, Ms Thengwa serves on the Board of the Environmental Assessment Practitioners Association of South Africa as a Deputy Chairperson. The Association is the first and only compulsory registration authority for environmental practitioners in South Africa.

Emily is the Head of Sustainable Finance and Future Cities Policy in the Group Public Affairs function at HSBC’s Global Headquarters in London. She is focused on sustainable finance and smart cities policy, with a particular passion for electric vehicles. Her role involves regular interaction with Governments and cities to develop an enabling policy environment for sustainable finance and identify new ways HSBC can finance the transition to a low carbon economy. Emily is also Co-Head of the International Chambers of Commerce Sustainable Finance Working Group, the world’s largest business organisation, which features over 6 million members in over 100 countries. Emily has a BSc in Social Policy with Government from London School of Economics and a Masters in International Relations and Diplomacy from the College of Europe in Belgium.

Dr. Mike Falke is Head of the “Governance and Human Rights” section at Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in Bonn, a position he has held since September 2015. He manages a broad portfolio of advisory services ranging from classical governance and human rights programmes to sector-specific projects in areas such as communal and urban development and climate-resilient cities. Dr Falke graduated from Law School at the Technical University of Dresden and obtained his master’s degree at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London on 'Law and Development', a topic he pursued with his dissertation at Humboldt University Berlin in 2003. After his studies he gained experience at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and in an international law firm in Berlin.

Daouda, a Senegalese national, is a Senior Climate Change Specialist at the Adaptation Fund Board Secretariat, where he is coordinating the Fund’s Results Based Management Framework, including monitoring of the Fund’s portfolio of projects and programmes. Daouda has previously worked with multilateral and national institutions as a technical advisor on natural resources management issues and environment finance, including as a Regional Technical Advisor at UNDP’s Regional Centre for Western and Central Africa, supporting UNDP country offices in the design and implementation of biodiversity and land degradation projects. He has also worked as a research scientist for research and academic institutions. Daouda holds a PhD in Ecology and a Master's degree in Business administration.

As manager of the Catchment Management section, Geoffrey Tooley is responsible for work relating to the rivers in eThekwini (Durban, South Africa) including floodlines, stormwater management plans, master drainage plans, rainfall distribution figures and erosion control as well as adaptation plans related to flooding. Geoff managed the development of the new stormwater management policy for the eThekwini municipality. Geoff's has worked in the stormwater sector for 28 years, is a member of the Water Research Commission reference groups and is on the executive committee for the Institute of Municipal Engineers of Southern Africa (IMESA).

Jakob Sohrt works on rain water management strategies for the Berlin Senate department for integrative environmental protection since early 2018. This work is part of the general aim of the city of Berlin to improve overall environmental standards in surface waters and to mitigate the effects of climate change on the city and its inhabitants. During his university studies he earned a BSc in forestry, environmental sciences and meteorology as well as in MSc in hydrology from the University of Freiburg. Afterwards he worked as a scientific employee at the Center for Environmental Research in Halle / Leipzig and as a PhD student in the project Phosphorus Nutrition Ecosystem.

Bernhard Ensink (1956) has been Secretary General of the European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF) since 2006, and since 2014 also Secretary General of the network World Cycling Alliance. He has been the Director of ‘Fietsersbond’, the Dutch Cyclists’ Association, from 1998 until 2006 and Vice Mayor of the Dutch city of Coevorden (1994-1998), responsible for public affairs, spatial planning, environment, housing and finance. He has a PhD in theology.

David is the Bicycle Manager for the city of Bogotá, currently under the leadership of Mayor Enrique Peñalosa. David has a Master in City Planning and Transportation Engineering from MIT, and has worked for over 10 years with organizations such as the World Resources Institute, Steer Davies Gleave, TransMilenio, Gehl Studio and the San Francisco County Transportation Authority. He has led a variety of projects focused on public transport, public space, walking and bikes and most importantly on creating quality of life. He currently owns 5 bicycles and a pair of rollerblades, and is a huge fan of bicycle-oriented architecture.

Dr Kevin Austin serves as C40’s Deputy Executive Director. Kevin oversees all of C40’s programme delivery, operations and finance functions as well as contributing to global thought leadership and innovation in urban climate change issues. Kevin joined C40 from the Greater London Authority where he was responsible for External Relations for the Mayor of London. His previous role at the GLA included Head of Olympic projects, leading the delivery of the major city-related elements associated with the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympics Games. Between 2002 and 2009 he served as Head of Transport, advising the Mayor of London on all aspects of transport policy. In earlier years he worked for a major consultancy advising clients on project implementation and economic appraisal. He has a Masters in Transport Planning and a Doctorate in Civil Engineering from Leeds University.

Maryke spearheads ICLEI’s work on Measurable, Reporting and Verifiable (MRV) local climate action and multi-level governance. Maryke coordinates ICLEI’s Low Carbon City Agenda implemented by all ICLEI offices around the globe, and leads a team at the ICLEI World Secretariat offering practical support to guide local and regional governments in tackling climate change. Technical assistance is provided on how to develop robust GHG inventories and climate action plans, and supporting access finance for local projects. As Director of the carbonn Center, Maryke works with a team of multi-disciplinary experts around the globe to support cities and regions with their climate, energy and air quality reporting on the carbonn Climate Registry, analysing data and progress made, and feeding results into advocacy messaging at the UNFCCC and other forums.