The Policy and Finance Committee is an international panel composed of 17 distinguished members from the policy and finance sectors, including the banking sector, investors and policy leaders.
The Policy and Finance Committee's key mandate and duties include：
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- to liaise with relevant policy and finance communities and organizations, support building networks and guiding the Secretariat in doing so and facilitating the alignment of the Science Committee’s work with the needs and priorities of the policy and finance communities
- to address the knowledge gaps identified by the policy and finance communities and organizations
- to support and contribute to the exchange of information between the MG and the policy and finance communities and organizations at large
Co-Chairs
Minpeng Chen
Remin University, China
Ms Minpeng Chen is a full professor in the School of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development (SARD) at Renmin University of China.She has working experiences of adaptation and mitigation in agriculture, and the sustainability of agriculture at Tsinghua University, Yale University, Yamanashi University, IIASA, and Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. She acted as a negotiator on adaptation and loss and damage of Chinese Delegation from 2014 to 2016, as well as a member and co-chair of the Adaptation Committee of UNFCCC from 2015 to 2017. Prof. Chen holds a B.A. in Environmental Economics and obtained her PH.D. from Tsinghua University in Environmental System Analysis.
Bhim Adhikari
International Development Research Centre (IDRC)
Dr. Adhikari is a Senior Program Specialist at Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and work specifically on environment, climate change and sustainable development issues. Over the past 25 years, Dr. Adhikari has worked with several international organizations and academic institutions, including the United Nations agencies. Prior to IDRC, he worked with the Institute of Water, Environment and Health, United Nations University (UNU), the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). His research appointments include a Research Fellow at the School of Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan, USA; visiting Research Fellow at the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) in Tokyo, Japan; and an UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Postdoctoral Fellow. He obtained a PhD in Environmental Economics and Management form the University of York, UK and has researched and written widely on climate change and the economics of environment and natural resources management.
Sivapuram Venkata Rama Krishna Prabhakar
The Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES)
Prabhakar works with the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), Japan, as a Principal Policy Researcher. He works on transboundary impacts of climate change, vulnerability assessments, risk insurance, loss and damage, mainstreaming CCA and DRR into development plans and policies, adaptation metrics, adaptive policies and institutions, and capacity needs assessments. He led several research and development projects on climate change adaptation (CCA) and disaster risk reduction (DRR) in South and South-East Asian countries. Prabhakar obtained a PhD in Field Crop Management from Indian Agricultural Research Institute, India, and possesses more than 20 years of experience in participatory research and development with international and national research and development organizations, including IGES, Kyoto University, UNDP, NIDM, CIMMYT-RWC, IARI, and ICRISAT. A strong publication record with several peer-reviewed papers supports his work experience. He has been a Contributing Author to the Fifth and Sixth Assessment Reports of the IPCC Working Group II, Coordinating Lead Author for the UNEP Geo-6 report, Lead Author for the ASEAN State of Climate Report (SOE6), and Lead Author for the HIMAP Report.
Members
G. R. Chintala
National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD)
Mr G R Chintala is the Chairman of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), the Apex Development Financial Institution of the country. He has been awarded honorary doctorate in Science by Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University, Hyderabad. After graduating from the prestigious agriculture college, Bapatla, he did his Post Graduation in Seed Science and Technology from the world-renowned Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. He joined NABARD as an officer and over the last three and a half decades, has worked in various capacities at its Head Office and Regional Offices. Prior to taking over as Chairman, he was the Managing Director of NABFINS Ltd. (Microfinance lending subsidiary of NABARD). He has also held Director level positions in Subsidiaries of NABARD, several Regional Rural Banks, State Cooperative Banks and NBFCs. He conceptualized, designed and rolled out digitization of the world’s largest microfinance program under project ‘e-Shakti’ and also played a vital role in driving the world’s largest poverty alleviation cum women empowerment program, the SHG movement comprising 10 million groups, covering 100 million members. He has travelled extensively and visited more than 20 countries for presenting papers on various topics and other assignments covering agriculture and rural development.
Anne Olhoff
UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre (UNEP-CCC)
Ms Anne Olhoff is Chief Climate Advisor at UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre (UNEP-CCC). She brings more than twenty years of experience in international policy advice, technical assistance and research on climate change mitigation and adaptation in the context of sustainable development. Since 2012, Ms. Olhoff has been heavily involved in managing, authoring, editing and outreach of the annual UNEP flagship report on climate change: the Emissions Gap Report, guiding and coordinating the work of 60+ scientists from 35+ institutions across 20+ countries. She was awarded the Technical University of Denmark's prize for scientific advice in 2017. Ms. Olhoff holds Ph.D. and M.Sc. degrees in economics from Roskilde University and Copenhagen University respectively.
Jolene Cook
UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
Ms Jolene Cook has been working in the climate change field for over 15 years as an academic researcher and a government science adviser. Currently, she is Head of International Climate Science in the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy where she leads on international science engagement and provides scientific advice to inform both UK and international climate policy. As the UK’s Focal Point for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Jolene works with her counterparts around the world to assist the IPCC in the production of assessments of the scientific and technical evidence, and supports UK research community’s participation in the process. She is also the UK’s COP26 science lead negotiator for the UN Framework Convention for Climate Change. Jolene spent two years working in the EU on international climate science issues and a short time as a visiting scientist in Japan.
Paul V. Desanker
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
Mr Paul V. Desanker (PhD) serves as the manager of the Response Subdivision in the Adaptation Division, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Paul is a Manager in the Adaptation Division of the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and is responsible for support to the LDCs, National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), and, Loss and Damage. He has extensive experience working on issues related to adaptation to climate change, ecological modeling, remote sensing, integrated assessment, and has served as Coordinating Lead Author of the Third Assessment Report of the IPCC. Prior to his current position, he served as a member and Chair of the LDC Expert Group, and was an Associate Professor of Geography at Penn State University after working as a Research Assistant Professor at University of Virginia, in the USA. Paul holds a Masters degree in Mathematics and a PhD in Forest Biometrics from Michigan Technological University, USA.
Amir H. Delju
World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
Mr Amir H. Delju is Senior Scientific Officer in Climate Services Branch of the WMO, 2004. Mr Delju coordinates WMO’s contribution to the UNFCCC process and implementation of the Paris Agreement, mainly on adaptation related issues. He has produced many publications for WMO on climate science and adaptation in addition to peer review papers on climate and drought monitoring. Mr Delju majors in Meteorology and Climatology. He is a PhD (Candidate) on Interdisciplinary Study of Climate Change and Migration with a focus on drought at Neuchâtel University, Switzerland. He got his Master of Science degree in Physical Geography (Climatology) in 1999 in Tehran, Iran.
Rosalind West
UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Ms Rosalind West is the lead advisor on weather and climate science at the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office. She heads the climate science team in the Research & Evidence Division where she is responsible for the department’s portfolio of research programmes on adaptation and resilience, including the Future Climate for Africa programme. Rosalind has a background in climate model development, with a DPhil in Atmospheric Physics from the University of Oxford, and is a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society. Alongside Prof Anand Patwardhan, she is currently co-chairing the development of the Adaptation Research Alliance for launch as part of the COP26 Adaptation & Resilience campaign, aiming to scale up investment and capacity in action-orientated research for adaptation and resilience.
Mr Thanh-Tâm is Climate-KIC's Director of Performance and Impact focusing on National and Regional Transformation. He has been the Director for France and the Mediterranean for several years and coordinated the H2020 MARCO project on the EU market of climate services. A classical concert violinist with an "ingénieur" degree from Ecole Polytechnique and a Ph.D. in mathematics from Paris University Denis Diderot, he had previously set up and directed the Graduate School at Ecole Polytechnique. Prior experience includes positions as Lecturer and Dean at SUPAERO (Toulouse). He was also a member of the Operational Board of the IDEA League.
Mozaharul Alam
UNEP Asia and the Pacific Office
Mr Mozaharul Alam has obtained his M. Sc. Degree in Geography in 1989 from Jahangirnagar University in Bangladesh. His areas of specialization are in adaptation and low carbon development to climate change, integrating climate change into development planning, and international negotiations. He has started his professional career as a young researcher with Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS) in 1992. He has served the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of Bangladesh as a National Project Coordinator and has successfully undertaken inclusive process and formulated National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA). He has attended climate change negotiations for more than a decade and coordinated adaptation group of G77 and China during 2007 to 2009. He has worked as Lead Author for Working Group II for IPCC Fifth Assessment Report. He has received an international fellowship from International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) under Climate Change Programme for three years in 2006. In 2009, he has joined the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as a Regional Coordinator, Climate Change for Asia and the Pacific Office, and providing strategic and political guidance to design and implement climate actions in the region.
Henry Neufeldt
UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre
Mr Henry Neufeldt is Head of Impact Assessment and Adaptation at the UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre. Until 2017 he was Head of Climate Change at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in Nairobi. He currently leads UNEP-CCC’s work on climate risks and transparency in adaptation and is the chief scientific editor of the UNEP Adaptation Gap Reports. He was also a lead author on the Working Group II chapter on ‘Food, Fibres and Ecosystem products’ of the recently launched IPCC Sixth Assessment Report. He has more than 20 years of experience in international research for development and policy advice on climate change mitigation and adaptation, focusing on natural resource management, agriculture and forestry, biomass energy, and food security and holds degrees in environmental sciences and soil science from the University of Bayreuth, Germany.
Carolina Zambrano-Barragán
The Climate and Land Use Alliance
Ms Carolina Zambrano-Barragán has almost 15 years of experience working at the intersection of climate action, human rights, urban policy, and biodiversity conservation. She has held leadership positions in the public, philanthropic, and non-profit sectors, contributing to sustainability, advancing rights, and climate resilient development in Latin America and globally. Currently, Carolina is Director of Programs at the Climate and Land Use Alliance (CLUA), a collaborative of foundations that seeks to realize the potential of forests and land use to achieve climate-resilient development, benefitting people and protecting the environment. Before joining CLUA, Carolina was the Climate Justice Lead at Hivos, and previously, their program director for All Eyes on the Amazon and Amazon Indigenous Health Route. Prior to this work, Carolina led climate, environment and innovation policies and programs in Ecuador; she was Vice Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation; Undersecretary of Climate Change; and Director of Environmental Policy for the City of Quito. She also managed Avina Foundation’s Sustainable Cities program in Latin America. Carolina started her career as a biologist and has a Master of Public Administration (MPA) from Harvard University and a Master of Environmental Management from Yale University.
Mr Lindsey Jones is a Senior Operations Officer in the World Bank’s Global Crisis Risk Platform (GCRP). He leads the GCRP’s work on addressing overlapping threats from climate change and Fragility, Conflict and Violence (FCV). This includes the Platform’s efforts to scale access to adaptation finance in fragile and conflict-affected environments. He also heads GCRP’s work on developing real-time early warning systems for tracking global compound risk hotspots. Lindsey has designed and managed a large number of research and technical assistance programmes across Africa and Asia. He’s held positions at leading think tanks, research institutes and multilateral development organisations including the Overseas Development Institute (UK), CSIRO (Australia) and UNDP (Nepal). Lindsey’s background is in adaptation and disaster risk reduction, with a PhD focused on designing tools for measuring resilience to climate extremes (London School of Economics) and an MSc in environmental policy (University of Oxford).
Ahmed Abdelrehim
The Centre for Environment and Development for the Arab Region and Europe
Mr Ahmed Abdelrehim is the Regional Programme Director at the Centre for Environment and Development for the Arab Region and Europe (CEDARE). He holds a B.Sc. of Civil Engineering from University of Alexandria and received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Environmental Decision analysis from Newcastle University, United Kingdom. He was also a visiting scholar in Arizona State University and Ohio State University in USA. Dr. Abdelrehim is an international expert who has conducted technical assistance for countries and organizations at the global, regional, sub-regional and national levels. He is the Chairman of Africa Data Group, and he was the Lead review editor for the United Nations’ sixth Global Environment Outlook process. He Chaired, the West Asia regional assessment and the first environmental outlook for the Arab region. He conducted policy research, studies and technical assistance to more than 37 countries. He is the author of numerous publications on global and regional environmental policy analysis. This is in addition to teaching and supervising post graduate courses in climate change management and has numerous international publications in the field of climate change vulnerability assessment, Integrated environmental assessment, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), Multi criteria Decision Analysis (MDA), Spatial Analysis and public participation in environmental decision-making.
Denyse S Dookie
the London School of Economics and Political Science
Ms Denyse S Dookie is a researcher at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment (GRI) at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her work at GRI is broadly centred on using climate information for decision-making in the context of adaptation, disaster risk reduction and resilience, with recent projects focusing on narratives from the Caribbean, organisational adaptation in the UK, and behavioural adaptation in the context of water security and inclusion in Africa. She previously worked with development practitioners and multilateral development organisations such as the Inter-American Development Bank, UNDESA and UNDP both abroad and in her home country, Trinidad and Tobago, and has a keen interest in the specific challenges of Small Island Developing States (SIDS). Denyse holds postgraduate degrees in international relations, economics/development studies, and climate and society from the University of the West Indies, International Institute of Social Studies/Erasmus University and Columbia University, respectively, and a PhD focused on the economic potential of climate information in the context of sustainable development from Columbia University.
