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Speaker

Dr. Barbara Buchner is Global Managing Director of Climate Policy Initiative. Named one of the 20 most influential women in climate change and one of the 100 most influential people in climate policy, Barbara advises leaders on climate, energy, and land use investments around the world.

Barbara directs the Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance (the Lab). The Lab’s public-private approach solicits, shapes, and tests cutting edge climate finance instruments that resolve financing barriers hindering alternative energy, adaptation, and land use projects. Instruments from the Lab have mobilized over USD 4 billion for sustainable development in developing economies.

She is also the lead author on the Global Landscape of Climate Finance, which has set the benchmark for climate finance tracking, and Climate Finance in 2013-14 and the USD 100 billion goal – a joint report with the OECD that played a seminal role in the lead up to the Paris Agreement. In addition, Barbara built and directs the San Giorgio Group, which brings together climate finance leaders to engage on critical issues that require collective effort to accelerate the transition to more sustainable, lower-emission economies.

Barbara is a recognized expert in climate policy and climate finance and regularly speaks at high-level international events. She has presented at the Summit for a New Global Financial Pact, the Climate Finance Ministerial, the World Future Energy Summit, the IRENA Assembly Ministerial Meeting, the One Planet Summit, and the BNEF Future of Energy Summit. She has also contributed to discussions at COPs, multiple Climate Weeks, and through the GCF Private Sector Facility, among many other platforms.

Barbara holds several prominent academic and advisory roles. She is Professor in Practice for Sustainable Finance at the University of London’s SOAS Centre for Sustainable Finance and serves as Program Director of the Climate Change and Energy Program at the Australian National University. She is a member of the Fast Infra Group Board of Directors and sits on the advisory boards of the Schwarzenegger Climate Initiative and Egypt’s Financial Regulatory Authority’s Regional Center for Sustainable Finance (RCSF). She also serves on the advisory committee of the Mitigation Action Facility.