UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre

Fatemeh Bakhtiari is a Senior Advisor at UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre (UNEP-CCC), specializing in climate policy and Loss and Damage under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). She co-leads the Centre’s work on Loss and Damage, supporting developing countries through policy design, technical guidance, and implementation support.

Her expertise focuses on non-economic losses (NELs), environmental valuation methods, and national systems for monitoring and assessing Loss and Damage. With a PhD in Environmental Economics and a master’s degree in Environmental Engineering, she specializes in non-market valuation approaches, including stated and revealed preference methods, discrete choice modelling, contingent valuation, and behavioural analysis for assessing climate-related impacts on health, culture, biodiversity, ecosystems, and livelihoods.

She has extensive experience in survey design, quantitative socio-economic analysis, and field-based valuation studies in developed and developing countries. Fatemeh regularly supports governments and international partners through technical guidance, capacity-building initiatives, and multi-country projects, and has contributed to major global assessments including UNEP’s Emissions Gap Report and Adaptation Gap Report.

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.

Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP)

Filomena Nelson is an experienced climate and disaster resilience expert with a proven track record over 20+ years in climate change adaptation and climate-induced loss and damage, disaster risk management and national planning. Specialized in developing forward-thinking national strategies and plans that prioritize practical cost-effective adaptation interventions, placed-based responses to addressing loss and damage and effective disaster reduction actions, fostering long-term resilience in developing country contexts across over 22 Pacific Island countries and territories. Recognized for enhancing capacities of diverse stakeholder groups, empowering them in effective adaptation, loss and damage responses and disaster risk management. Adept at leading high-performing teams, driving resilient and sustainable development across Pacific Small Islands Developing States for a resilient future.

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

Robert David Karoro is a passionate indigenous Banaban from Kiribati & Fiji, and dedicated in advocating for climate justice, indigenous rights, and community resilience in the Pacific. Currently, he serves as the National Coordinator for the Kiribati Climate Action Network (KiriCAN). He is representing Pacific Indigenous Peoples in key global forums. He is the Pacific representative to the Facilitative Working Group (FWG) of the Local Communities and Indigenous People Platform (LCIPP) under the UNFCCC and was elected as Vice Co-Chair of the group. He pioneers studies, including Non-Economic Loss & Damage in Kiribati and Pacific Girls in a Changing Climate, which highlights the intersectionality and multidimensional impact of climate change on gender and culture. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Earth Science & Geography and Postgraduate Diploma Science in Geoscience from the University of the South Pacific.

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

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.

Director (United Nations-III), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Pakistan

Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage

Senior Climate Change Officer/Youth Focal Point, State Department of Environment and Climate Change, Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Forestry, Kenya

Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage

James Thonjo is a Senior Climate Change Officer/Youth Focal Point for the State Department of Environment and Climate Change at the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Forestry, Kenya. James is also Kenya’s Loss and Damage Contact Point and Santiago network Liaison Officer.

Department of Air Protection and Climate Negotiations, Ministry of Climate and Environment; Sweden

Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage

Deputy Director, Policy and Negotiations team, Environment and Climate Change Canada

Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage

Thomas Cameron is a Deputy Director with Policy and Negotiations team of Environment and Climate Change Canada. His team is responsible for loss and damage, adaptation and resilience, Indigenous engagement, gender and ACE under the UNFCCC. Thomas has been working in the UNFCCC space for 7 years working on a number of files, including as the WEOG representative and Party co-chair for the initial cohort of the Facilitative Working Group of the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform. Before joining the Environment and Climate Change Canada, Thomas held several multilateral roles with Canada’s Ministry responsible for international affairs.