Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States

Eustace Crispin d’Auvergne serves as a Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management Coordinator with the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) and also serves in the Paris Committee on Capacity-Building. Previously, he worked with the Government of Saint Lucia in the fields of fisheries, natural resources, environment and energy, with his final position being that of the Chief Sustainable Development and Environment Officer. He also served as Saint Lucia’s climate change Negotiator for 15 years.

University of Washington, USA

Kristie L. Ebi is a Professor at the Center for Health and the Global Environment at the University of Washington. Her research focuses on sources of vulnerability, health risks of climate change, adaptation policies and risks’ reduction in multi-stressor environments, and the health co-benefits of mitigation policies. She has assessed vulnerabilities and implemented adaptation policies and programmes for countries in Central America, Europe, Africa, Asia and the Pacific. She has been an author on multiple national and international climate change assessments, including the fourth U.S. National Climate Assessment, the Working Group II contribution to the IPCC 6th Assessment Report. and the IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C. She has edited four books on aspects of climate change and has more than 200 publications.

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

Nigel Crawhall is Chief of Section for the Local and Indigenous Knowledge Systems programme at UNESCO, within the Sector for Natural Sciences, Division for Science Policy and Basic Sciences. He is the UNESCO focal point on climate adaptation and on loss and damage, with a focus on non-economic loss and damage. He is formerly the UNESCO focal point on Small Island Developing States (SIDS). Nigel Crawhall holds a PhD in Sociolinguistics from the University of Cape Town.

Asian Disaster Preparedness Center

Sisira Madurapperuma is the Director at the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC). He also works as a Researcher at the Global Disaster Resilience Center, School of Applied Science at the University of Huddersfield, UK. His areas of expertise include disaster risk management, climate change adaptation, and sustainable development, especially in the thematic fields of risk governance, estimation of economic and non-economic costs of climate change and disaster impacts, post-disaster damage, and loss estimation, resilient recovery, food security and overall institutional system development including policy, strategy and programme formulation. Previously, he served as the Head of Department at the ADPC.

The University of Queensland

Karen McNamara is a Professor in development geography in the School of the Environment at the University of Queensland (Australia). She is ultimately interested in how people experience and can improve their capacities to respond to the triple crises of poverty, disaster risk, and climate change. Over the last 20 years, Karen McNamara has been undertaking applied research in resilient livelihoods, non-economic loss and damage, community-based adaptation, human mobility, and gender, in close partnership with governments and NGOs throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Some of her recent advances have included a world-first conceptualisation of loss and damage across the Pacific Islands, an understanding of how climate change is violating people’s human rights, the identification of optimisation points to improve adaptation outcomes, and strategies for supporting women in disaster recovery.

University of South Africa

Godwell Nhamo serves as the Exxaro Chair in Climate and Sustainability Transitions and as the Chief Researcher in the Institute for Corporate Citizenship at the University of South Africa. His current work focuses on cyclones and floods in southern Africa. His areas of expertise include climate policy, disaster risk reduction and management, climate resilience, adaptation, and SDGs in low-income countries.

United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women)

Venge Nyirongo is Inter-governmental Specialist at UN-Women’s Inter-governmental Support Section working as the organization’s focal point for gender and the Rio Conventions and supports agency-wide work on the gender and climate/environment nexus. He has extensive experience on women’s economic empowerment in the context of sustainable development, having focused on rural development, climate-resilient agriculture, the labour market and women’s land rights; and management of a multi-stakeholder coalition on Economic Justice and Rights – advancing global action on the care economy, decent work and employment, productive resources in the context of a changing climate, and gender-transformative economies – to mobilize for a world where gender equality is a reality and prosperity for all people and planet.

WWF International, Singapore

Sandeep Chamling Rai is the Senior Advisor for the Global Climate Adaptation Policy in the Climate and Energy Practice at WWF International in Singapore. He has significant professional experience on climate change adaptation and loss and damage issues both at the national and global levels. Previously, he served as the Adaptation Policy Coordinator for the Global Climate and Energy Initiative at WWF International, Singapore and as a Member of the Board of Directors for the Climate Action Network International (CAN-I). Prior to that, he served as a Senior Programme Manager at WWF Nepal.

UNFCCC Facilitative Working Group of the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform

Gunn-Britt Retter is indigenous to Sápmi, the ancestral home of the Sámi in today’s Norway, Finland, Sweden, and north-west Russia. Ms. Retter holds two degrees, one in teaching from the Sámi University of Applied Sciences and another in bilingual studies from the University of Wales. She has combined her academic knowledge with the skills she learnt from her family and community growing up on the land and sea to focus her professional career on incorporating Indigenous Peoples’ knowledge into both research and action related to climate change, biodiversity, language, pollution, and natural resource management. After a four-year period with the Arctic Council’s Indigenous Peoples Secretariat, Ms. Retter has served the Saami Council for 17 years, as the Head of its Arctic and Environmental Unit. Her main role is to coordinate Saami Council’s participation in the Arctic Council, and the UN CBD and the UNFCCC.

West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL)

Seyni Salack is the Regional Thematic Coordinator of Research in Risks and Vulnerability to Climate Extremes at the West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL). His current work focuses on risks and vulnerability to climate extremes. His areas of expertise include disaster risk reduction and management, climate extremes, operational adaptation, agroclimatology/agrometeorology, near surface observation systems and research in climate science. Previously, he worked as the Coordinator of Observation networks and Seasonal forecasting at WASCAL and prior to that as a Senior Scientist at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).

UNFCCC Adaptation Committee

Giuliana Torta is a Principal Administrator for the European Commission on International Adaptation, DG Climate Action. She previously worked for the Counsellor for Climate, Environment, and Ocean policies at the EU Delegation to the US, Washington DC. She has 30 years of experience in the domains of environment, climate, biodiversity, and forestry.

UNFCCC Youth Constituency - YOUNGO

Irfan Ullah is a Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation Consultant for the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and is the Founder of Sustainability Week Pakistan. His areas of expertise include climate change adaptation, flood risk assessment, exposure and vulnerability analysis, community mobilization, youth empowerment and development. Previously, he served as the South and Central Asia Regional Focal Point for the United Nations Major Group for Children and Youth (UNMGCY) and prior to that, as a Community Development Officer at the Islamic Relief Pakistan.

United Nations University - Institute for Environment and Human Security

Dr. Yvonne Walz is the Head of the Environmental Vulnerability and Ecosystem Services (EVES) division of UNU-EHS. She is a geographer by training and has expertise in understanding drivers of risk, identifying ecosystem-based approaches to reduce current and future risks and evaluating adaptation strategies to impacts of climate change. In addition, she conducts research with the specific focus to support countries in monitoring progress towards the implementation of international frameworks and conventions.

UNFCCC Least Developed Countries Expert Group

Hugo Observatory: Environment, Migration, Politics, University of Liège

Caroline Zickgraf is the Deputy Director at the Hugo Observatory for the Environment, Migration and Politics at the University of Liège (Belgium). She is also a Scientific Coordinator of the HABITABLE project (2020-2024), funded by the European Commission, which looks at current and future scenarios of climate change and human mobility in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. She specializes in a range of human mobility issues such as migration, displacement, and immobility drivers, dynamics, and impacts. Previously, she has consulted for the World Bank, the Nansen Initiative, the Green European Foundation (GEF), the International Center for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on the links between climate change and migration.

Climate Change Commission, Philippines;

Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage

Jerome Ilagan is the Chief Planning Officer of Policy Research and Development division, Climate Change Office in the Climate Change Commission of the Philippines. He represents the Philippines in climate negotiations and is the Focal Point on Loss and Damage matters. His areas of expertise include climate policy and strategy, institutional support, financial resource mobilization, planning and programming, training and development.

Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, Colombia;

Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage

International relations officer, Directorate General- Climate Action, European Commission;

Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage

Stella Brożek-Everaert is an International Relations Officer at the European Commission, Directorate-General for Climate Action, where she works on adaptation to climate change, including loss and damage associated with climate change. Previously, she served as Head of Sector for the European Green Deal and coordinator of the Sustainable Development Observatory of the European Economic and Social Committee.

Assistant Director, Climate Finance and Adaptation, Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, Australia

Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage