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Mr. Mattias Frumerie works on climate finance and climate diplomacy at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, including climate mainstreaming in development cooperation and external relations. Sweden provides some 5 billion Swedish krona annually for climate action. Mr Frumerie represents Sweden on the Steering Committee of the NDC Partnership and is a member of the UNFCCC Standing Committee on Finance. As an SCF member, mr Frumerie co-facilitates the preparation of the report COP24 requested the SCF to present in 2020 on the determination of the needs of developing countries related to implementing the Convention and the Paris Agreement. Previous positions include deputy head of the MFA Budget and Planning Department, Head of EU Policy, Head of EU Single Market, Head of Strategic Communications, EU advisor to the Prime Minister and postings at the Swedish Embassy in Budapest and the Swedish EU mission in Brussels.

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Mr. Yolando Velasco is presently managing the Climate Finance Sub-Programme of the secretariat of the United Nations Climate Change Convention based in Bonn, Germany. He has 25 years of experience in national and international climate policy development, managing climate-related projects and the intergovernmental process on climate finance. He has been with the United Nations Climate Change secretariat since 2000 leading the work on technology transfer, capacity-building, national communications of developing countries and climate finance. Before joining the secretariat, Yolando served as a member of the Philippine delegation to the United Nations Climate Change Convention (1992-2000) and actively negotiated on issues related to technology transfer, national communications and financial mechanism. As Country Manager of the International Institute for Energy Conservation from 1997–2000, he implemented the Green Buildings and Sustainable Energy Programmes in the Philippines.

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Mr. David Kaluba is currently the Climate Adaptation Expert on Climate Resilience Livestock Management Project (CLRMP) located in the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock of Zambia. He previously served as National Coordinator for the Interim Climate Change Secretariat (ICCS) in the Ministry of Finance for 8 years where he also helped establish the largest climate resilience portfolio in the history of Zambia exceeding US$250 million. Since January 2016 to date, David has been serving as Board Member of the Adaptation Fund Board (AFB). He previously served as Board Member on the Green Climate Fund (GCF) from 2012 to 2015. Prior to that, he Co-Chaired the Sub-Committee of the Pilot Programme for Climate Resilience (PPCR), the Strategic Climate Fund (SFC) Sub-Committee and the Joint Clean Development Fund (CTF) and SCF Committee between 2011 and 2014 at Climate Investment Funds (CIF). He has been an active negotiator on various climate finance matters under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) working the Least Developed Country and African Groups of negotiators. David graduated from the University of Kentucky, Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce with a Master of Arts degree in Diplomacy and International Commerce in the United States of America in 2007. He also holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics from the University of Kentucky which he obtained in 2005. In 1997, he graduated with a Diploma in Accountancy from Evelyn Home College, Lusaka, Zambia.

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Mr. Guillermo García Moscoso is advisor of the Ministry of Finance of Chile on climate change matters. Also, integrates the Chilean negotiation team for COP 25 and advises an alternate board member of the Green Climate Fund. He studied Laws at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and holds a Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Environmental Law and Policy from University College London. Previously, worked with the Chilean Ministry of Environment (2010-2011) and Barros & Errázuriz Abogados (2011-2019). With both public and private experience, his practice is focused on Climate Change, Environmental and Administrative Law.

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Mr. Renato Redentor Constantino heads the international policy group Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities and is a member of the Expert Advisory Group of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) and Vulnerable 20 Group of Finance Ministers (V20). He is a Board Member of the Philippine People’s Survival Fund, the country's first legislated climate finance mechanism. He was senior advisor to the Philippine presidency of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (2014-2016) and V20 (2015-2016). He published the literary anthology Agam: Narratives on Uncertainty and Climate Change, which won four national book awards (2015, 2016). He contributed to the anthology Humanity (Paloma Press, 2018) and is the author of The Poverty of Memory: Essays on History and Empire (CF, 2006).

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Mr. Rana Hasan is the Director of the Economic Analysis and Operational Support Division at the Asian Development Bank’s Economic Research and Regional Coordination Department. His research areas and interests include industrial development, labor economics, poverty and inequality, and urban economics from the perspective of developing countries, especially those in the Asia-Pacific region. He has previously served as Director of the Development Economics and Indicators Division and Principal Economist in ADB’s India Resident Mission and as Fellow at the East-West Center (USA). His research has been published in various journals including the Journal of Development Economics, Review of Economics and Statistics, and World Development. He has also co-edited two volumes on trade and labor related issues. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Maryland and a Masters’ degree in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi.

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Mr. Gareth Phillips is Manager of the Climate and Environment Finance Division in the African Development Bank’s Power, Energy, Climate and Green Growth Complex based in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Gareth has over 25 years’ experience in climate change and sustainability. Trained as a forester with degrees from the Universities of Aberdeen and Oxford, he has worked in a wide variety of sectors on GHG accounting, inventory verification, the Clean Development Mechanism and Emission Trading Systems. The Climate and Environment Finance Division sources climate finance from the GCF, GEF, CIF and bilateral donors. Gareth is currently working on the development of the Adaptation Benefit Mechanism to facilitate public and private sector investment in adaptation and mainstreaming of Green Growth into AfDB’s activities.

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Mr. Stefanos Fotiou is an accomplished expert on environment and sustainable development and currently serving as the Director or the Environment and Development Division in the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia-Pacific. In this capacity Stefanos is providing strategic guidance for the planning and implementation of the UN ESCAP work on Environment and Development and he is also coordinating ESCAP’s overall approach on supporting implementation of the 2030 Agenda in the region. Highlights of his achievements include successfully leading intergovernmental negotiations resulting in specific normative outcomes, putting together initiatives on technical cooperation as well as steering analytical work in the substantive areas of his responsibility that include management of natural resources, urban development, climate change, green growth and resource efficiency. Prior to this Stefanos worked for 10 years in the UN Environment in various roles in the Economy Division and in the Asia-Pacific office. He has acted as Head of the “Cities and Lifestyles” Unit, as Senior Asia-Pacific Coordinator on Resource Efficiency and as Manager of the “Sustainable Tourism” programme.  Stefanos joined the UN system bringing with him 13 years of experience, including four years as Managing Director of a development consultancy; two years as head of the “Sustainable Development” section of the Greek Nature Conservation Centre; three years supporting the establishment of the EU Natura-2000 network; and four years in academia as research associate. Throughout his 25 years professional career, which began in academia and included assignments in NGOs, the private sector and the last 13 years in the UN system, Stefanos has taken leading roles in international forums, had conceptualised and let the development of regional and national strategies on environment and sustainable development and his work has been widely published and referenced. He holds a PhD in Natural Resource Economics from Aristotle University in Greece, an Executive MSc in Information Systems from the University of Macedonia, and a Master’s Degree in Forestry and Natural Environment from Aristotle University.

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Ms. Mariama Williams, Ph.D. is Senior Programme Officer at the South Centre. She is a feminist economist with over 20 years of experience working on economic development and macroeconomic issues, with a focus on gender equality and women’s empowerment and social equity, international trade, external debt and finance and more recently on climate change issues. Williams is also a director of the Institute of Law and Economics (ILE), Jamaica. Her current research areas are: South-South Cooperation (with a particular focus on climate change finance), climate change adaptation, gender and climate change, climate change finance, the economics of climate change, macro-economics and sustainable development in the context of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. Williams publications include Gender and Climate Financing: Coming Out of the Margin (Routledge 2015) and contributing researcher (joint research team from UNOSSC and the South Centre), Climate Partnerships for A Sustainable Future: An initial overview of South-South cooperation on climate change in the context of sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty (UN 2017). Mariama is also co-Coordinating Lead Author for chapter 15, Investment and Finance, Working Group III (Mitigation), AR6, the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

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Mr. Bastiaan van Ruijven is a Senior Research Scholar with the Energy (ENE) program at IIASA and co-chair of the International Committee On New Integrated Climate change assessment Scenarios (ICONICS). Between 2011 and 2017, Dr. van Ruijven worked as Project Scientist with the Integrated Assessment Modeling group at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, CO, USA and was Research Scientist at Boston University. Before 2011, Dr. van Ruijven was Policy Researcher with the IMAGE IAM group at the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL). Dr. van Ruijven's research interests cover a wide range of topics, from energy and technology scenarios to energy transitions in developing countries and the impacts of climate change. Current projects include a global analysis of the role of electricity interconnections in greenhouse gas mitigation and guidance of mitigation scenarios for financial sector analysts.

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Ms. Aishath Aileen Niyaz is an Assistant Director at the Ministry of Environment of the Maldives, which is the national focal point for the UNFCCC. Her work focuses on climate finance and resource mobilization for climate projects in the Maldives. She has been a member of the Maldivian delegation at UN Climate negotiations for the past five years and follows the finance thematic area for the Alliance of Small Island States. She served an advisor at the Green Climate Fund Board from 2015 to 2018. Aileen holds a Master of Science in Development Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London and a Bachelor of Arts in Communication and International Studies from Monash University, Australia.

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Mr. Dr. Abdul Rahman Khan is a post Graduate in Earth Sciences and Doctorate in Hydrogeology & Water resources planning and management modelling from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai. After completing Doctorate, he worked as Research Associate at Centre for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas (CTARA) at IIT, Mumbai and later he joined NABARD during 1988 as an Expert officer.  Dr. Khan has served in various states of India and in different departments of NABARD focusing on Rural Development Project financing, infrastructure funding, monitoring and evaluation. He has acquired considerable experience on techno-economic appraisal, implementation and monitoring of rural development projects specially water resources management and irrigation, flood control, river rejuvenation and watershed development and climate smart sustainable development projects. He is the member of various national level Expert Committees/ Groups constituted by the Govt. of India on water management projects. Currently, Dr. A. R. Khan is working as General Manager in Farm Sector Policy Department of NABARD Head Office, Mumbai and dealing with policy formulation and implementation of various promotional and development programmes like low carbon sustainable agriculture, building adaptation capacities in agriculture, promotion of green energy through watershed management, financial planning and mobilization of climate finances and partnership building for achieving Sustainable development goals.   

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Mr. Paul Watkiss is the director of a research consultancy in the UK which specialises in climate adaptation policy, planning and economics, and also a senior visiting associate at the University of Oxford.  He has over 20 years' experience of developing adaptation frameworks, and undertaking national adaptation plans, in both OECD and LDC countries.  Paul has undertaken numerous adaptation projects, and has developed a number of successful adaptation proposals for the Green Climate Fund and the Adaptation Fund.  Paul was a contributor to the IPCC AR5 chapter on the Economics of Adaptation and has published widely on adaptation appraisal and decision making under uncertainty. He was the lead author on the finance gap chapter in the UNEP Adaptation Gap report. 

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Ms. Helen Biangalen-Magata is an Indigenous Kadaclan from Paracelis, Mountain Province, Philippines. She is the Communications Officer of Tebtebba Foundation (Indigenous Peoples’ International Centre for Policy, Research and Education). Tebtebba is an indigenous peoples’ organization working with 18 other IP organizations in 13 countries from Africa, Latin America and Asia for the respect, protection and fulfillment of indigenous peoples’ rights. Ms. Biangalen-Magata is also the coordinator of the Indigenous Peoples’ Global Advocacy Team on the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and an alternate active observer of the Southern CSOs in the GCF.

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Mr. Dohyun Park is Manager and Climate Change Specialist in the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), the national grant ODA agency of the Republic of Korea. He works on climate change policy and strategy development, climate action-oriendted project design and its implementation aiming at supporting sustainable development for partner countries. He developed a number of bilateral and multilateral projects to tackle negative impacts of climate change, especially in Asia and the Pacific countries. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Graduate School of Energy and Environment, Korea University majoring in Energy and Environmental Policy. His research interests include low-carbon climate-resilient development, climate finance, carbon trading mechanism, and technology development in the context of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

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Mr. Mahawan Karuniasa is a member of the Indonesia’s delegation to the UNFCCC and a member of the Paris Committee on Capacity Building (PCCB), representing Asia-Pacific region. In 2017-2018, he was appointed to lead and conduct capacity gaps and needs assessments and produce the initial document of the Indonesia Capacity Building and Technology Needs Assessment (CBTNA). In addition, some significant contributions relevant to climate change policies and programs in Indonesia include a policy paper on Indonesia's Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) Implementation which is currently implemented as the National Strategy of Indonesia’s NDC Implementation. With 28 years of working experience, Mr. Mahawan Karuniasa actively contributes to various programs and activities on climate change, sustainable development and environmental issues with government, private sector, and communities, as well as various international and national organizations. Currently, he is a lecturer at School of Environmental Science, University of Indonesia.

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Mr. Bjoern Surborg is the head of climate change and disaster risk management at GIZ in the Philippines, working closely with the Climate Change Commission of the Philippines and other government agencies. In this role he is responsible for the overall coordination of the climate change and disaster risk management portfolio in the Philippines. Prior to his position in the Philippines he led the climate finance governance project in Bangladesh for GIZ. Before that Bjoern worked for GTZ, UNDP and other international organisations as an independent consultant on climate finance and the governance of climate change, land use planning, national and regional planning and Human Development. He has contributed to various research projects in Vietnam, South Africa and Canada. He completed his Doctorate and Masters in Geography at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada and was a post-doctoral fellow at Trinity College in Dublin in Ireland.

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Mr. Asad Abbas Maken is a Public Finance and Democratic Governance Specialist working for the UNDP Bangkok regional programme, the Governance of Climate Change Finance. Before joining the UNDP Bangkok he was working for UNDP Pakistan where he helped in putting place a Climate Change Financing Framework for the federal government and helping in budgetary reforms for mainstreaming climate change in the public financial management system. He has been associated for 5 years with ADB decentralization programme. Before that he was a civil servant with the government of Pakistan.

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Mr. . Daniel Griswold is an Associate Economic Affairs Officer in the Water Resources Section of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia. His work in support of member states focuses on water resources and climate change in the Arab region, particularly as related the science-policy interface, and including climate finance. Before joining the UN, Daniel worked as Director of Research and Impact at Global Partnerships, an international impact investor. He also has consulted extensively for development agencies, NGOs, and private sector entities on community and industrial development projects globally, most recently as Coordinator of a social and environmental consulting firm providing support to USAID projects and missions worldwide. He has a BA in International Development Studies from McGill University and an MBA from The Lisbon MBA.

Mr. Raju Pandit Chhetri is the Executive Director of Prakriti Resources Centre (PRC), an environment and development organization based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He has over 12 years of experience in the field of climate change policy and sustainable development. Raju has been following UN climate change negotiations under the UNFCCC and Green Climate Fund (GCF) for over a decade. He closely works with the Least Developed Country Group at the climate change negotiations and the GCF. Currently, he also serves as a member of the Climate Change Council and Climate Finance Technical Committee under the Government of Nepal. Raju passionately advocates for ambitious climate actions and sustainable development.

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Mr. Benedict Libanda has 13 years’ experience working in the areas of development and climate finance, environmental fiscal reforms, and natural resource management. He is the current and first Chief Executive Officer of the Environmental Investment Fund of Namibia. Prior to that he worked for the United Nations Development Programme overseeing a portfolio that covers biodiversity conservation, climate change, and land degradation. He is highly competitive in the areas of green financing, natural resource economics, risk management, project securitization, project planning and development, and corporate financing. He holds a Masters in Administration from the University of Leicester, Masters of International Development from the University of Free States.

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Mr. Marc Sadler is the Manager of the Climate Funds Management unit at the World Bank (WB). The unit manages the climate and carbon funds housed at the WB, covering land-use, forestry, renewable energy, energy efficiency, as well as the relationship with the Montreal Protocol, the Global Environmental Facility and the Green Climate Fund. His previous roles with the WB were Adviser on Risk and Markets and Global Lead for Climate Smart Agriculture in the Agriculture Global Practice. Before the WB, Marc was a consultant for the World Bank and FAO in Central Asia, Caucasus and Turkey on issues related to agribusiness and sectoral policy. Prior to this, he was a commodities trader based out of the Former Soviet Union. He has an M.A. in Jurisprudence from Trinity College, Oxford University.

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Mr. Stanley Wapot is the Manager, Sustainable Development Program at the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) Secretariat, an intergovernmental organization of the Melanesian countries (FLNKS – New Caledonia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea (PNG), Solomon Islands and Vanuatu), based in Port Vila, Republic of Vanuatu. His key role is in leading the coordination and facilitation of the Organization’s sub-regional initiatives on environmental sustainability, climate change and natural resource management in Forests and Fisheries. Has been with the MSG Secretariat for the last 6 years. He is also the focal point for the MSG Secretariat on the MSG Climate Finance. Strategy working closely with the members on means of implementation of the Strategy. Previously (2007-2012), Mr Wapot was the UNDP National Coordinator of Papua New Guinea’s Second National Communication project producing the Report to the UNFCCC, and Advisor to the PNG Department of Environment and Conservation on Climate Change. He has been a member of the PNG delegation to the UNFCCC COP international negotiations since 2007.

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Mr.  Corey Fortin joined the Green Climate Fund in the Division of Country Programming in July 2018.  There he serves as a liaison between National Designated Authorities in the Asia Pacific Region and the GCF. His work includes a specific focus on country programme development and provision of support through GCF’s readiness and preparatory support programme.

Previously, he worked for eight years with the United States Agency for International Development as an Environment and Agricultural Officer. Corey has over ten years of field level work experience in the Asia Pacific region as well as in East Africa.