German Institute of Development and Sustainability 

Mariya Aleksandrova is a Senior Researcher and Project Lead at the German Institute of Development and Sustainability. Her areas of expertise include adaptation and loss and damage governance and finance, and social protection and climate change. Her current research focuses on finance mechanisms for addressing compound risks and slow onset climate impacts. Previously, she consulted various UN organizations with operations across Central and Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre

Bettina Koelle is a Senior Knowledge and Learning Specialist with the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre. She has 20 years of experience in facilitating community-based development and adaptation and in policy-related research and discourse both in South Africa and globally. She is a Contributing Author to the current draft of the IPCC 6^th Assessment Report and is a member of the Adaptation Fund NGO network. Previously, she served as Senior Technical Advisor at the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre and has also contributed to the IPCC Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (IPCC SREX). She has also served on the South African Steering Committee of the National Implementing Entity (NIE) for the Adaptation Fund as well as on the Project Advisory Committee for the NIE’s Community Adaptation Small Grants Facility Project.

Euro-Mediterranean Centre on Climate Change

Jaroslav Mysiak currently serves as Senior Scientist and Research Director at the Euro-Mediterranean Centre on Climate Change. His research focuses on risk assessment and governance, including behavioural responses to risks and risk-reduction measures, risk perception and transformational social change, environmental economics, sustainable finance, climate adaptation and services. Previously, he served as a Senior Scientist at the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.

Stockholm Environment Institute – Asia Centre

Albert Salamanca is a Senior Research Fellow at the Stockholm Environment Institute’s Asia Centre where he leads the Climate Change, Disasters and Development cluster. He has over 15 years of experience working on climate change adaptation, natural resource management, conservation, development, and sustainable livelihoods issues in several countries in Southeast Asia. Previously, he served as a Research Fellow at the Stockholm Environment Institute - Asia Centre.

Associate, Asociación para la Investigación y el Desarrollo Integral 

Marioldy Sanchez Santivañez is a forest engineer with expertise in project management, monitoring and evaluation.  She has 18 years of experience in implementing and managing forest conservation and sustainable development projects in the Peruvian Amazon and drylands of Peru. Her areas of expertise are community-based forest management, sustainable land management, land restoration, participatory management of protected areas and climate change mitigation initiatives in the land use, land-use change and forestry sector and private sector engagement. She has eight years of experience in the follow-up of the negotiations of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and served in the UNCCD Civil Society Panel and in the UNCCD Science- Politicy Interface, representing civil society.

Environnement et Developpement du Tiers Monde

Emmanuel Seck is Executive Director of ENDA Energie member of the Environment and Development TM network. He is a Board Member of the Global Network for Disaster Reduction where he serves as a Regional Representative of West and Central Africa. His areas of expertise include Climate Change adaptation, climate finance, loss and damage, sustainable land management and energy planning. He has been engaged at the national, regional, and international levels in the intergovernmental processes of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification and the Sendai Framework.

International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD)

Sravan Shrestha is a Senior Associate (Geoinformation Science and Remote Sensing) at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), specializing in the application of Earth observation for climate risk and decision support. His work focuses on assessing climate-induced loss and damage, particularly slow onset processes such as glacial retreat, drought, and land degradation in mountain systems. He brings expertise in multi-hazard risk assessment and the use of geospatial data to inform anticipatory action and climate-resilient planning. Sravan has supported governments and development partners across the Hindu Kush Himalaya region in translating complex scientific information into actionable, policy-relevant insights for managing long-term climate risks.

Charles Darwin University, Australia

Akhilesh Surjan is an Associate Professor and Research and Theme Leader at the Humanitarian, Emergency and Disaster Management Studies Program at the Charles Darwin University in Australia. His areas of expertise include disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation (in human settlements), urban sustainability (urban resilience, local governance, sustainable consumption and waste reduction). Previously, he served as Associate Professor in the Inter-Graduate School Program for Sustainable Development and Survivable Societies at the Kyoto University in Japan. He was also a Lead Author of the IPCC 5th Assessment Report and Contributing Author of the United Nations Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction.

Alternate Board Member, Green Climate Fund (GCF); Bureau Member, IPCC Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories; Lead Climate Negotiator, Chad; National Focal Point (NFP), IPCC

Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage

Hamid Abakar Souleymane is a meteorology and climate change expert from Chad with extensive leadership and international experience. He serves as an Alternate Board Member of the Green Climate Fund (GCF), a Bureau Member of the IPCC Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, Chad’s Lead Climate Negotiator, and the National Focal Point (NFP) to the IPCC.

He was Deputy Director General of the Chad National Meteorological Agency (2018–2024) and previously Director of Exploitation and Meteorological Applications (2014–2018). He is also the founder of the Tree of Sahel Association, which promotes sustainable development, good governance, and climate action.

At the scientific level, he is contributing to the IPCC Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) and Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS) Methodology Report as a Review Editor under the Seventh Assessment Report (AR7) cycle.

Senior Specialist, Ministry of Energy, Saudi Arabia

Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage

Deputy Director, Climate Change Science and Adaptation Office, Global Environment Bureau, Ministry of the Environment, Japan

Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage

Emiko holds a PhD of Microbiology. She has nine years of experience in international climate change negotiations and has been responsible for loss and damage since 2023.

She has also managed several projects in Asia-Pacific countries.

Assistant Director, International Climate Negotiations Branch, Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, Australia

Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage

Jared Huntley has worked on international climate change issues since 2022 for the Australian Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. His areas of focus within the UNFCCC have included gender-responsive climate action, climate education, and youth empowerment – and he is particularly interested in advancing work that highlights human-rights approaches to enhancing efforts under the Paris Agreement. He has a passion for the natural world, including the cryosphere and the immense changes it is undergoing.