• Email: stephen.minas@kcl.ac.uk
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• Email: thibyan.ibrahim@environment.gov.mv
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• Email: sara.traerup@un.org
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Bio

Sara is a development professional with robust experience in project and team management, as well as research and advisory based work in the fields of climate change, technologies and sustainable development.

She has been working with international organisations and national governments in developing countries to promote the development, transfer and use of environmentally sound technologies, to contribute to sustainable development pathways since 2005.

To this end, since joining UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre in 2005, she has worked to establish strategic partnerships and collaboration with international organisations and national governments, supported developing countries in identifying their technology needs, and helped build capacity for accessing finance for implementing these technologies.

Sara holds a PhD degree in socio-economic assessments of climate change vulnerability and adaptation from the University of Copenhagen and a MSc. degree in Agricultural Economics from the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Copenhagen, Denmark.

• Email: marie-blanche.ting@un.org
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Bio

Blanche is an energy and sustainable development professional with close to twenty years of experience in both the public and private sectors, having guided energy sector policies and strategies, developed projects and led the implementation of technical assistance projects in emerging economies.  Her working experiences include the private sector, the national government of South Africa, multilateral organisations, research councils and academia.  Her particular research interests are in energy transitions, science, technology, and transformative innovation. Both are intertwined in academia and real-world practitioners’ experiences.  For this, she has in-country experience in Ghana, Kenya, Senegal and South Africa.

Prior to UNEP-CCC, she was the Energy and Low Carbon Coordinator for UNIDO, at the Southern Africa Regional Office (SARO), leading projects on industrial energy efficiency, low carbon transport, eco-industrial parks, and climate change adaptation in the agri-industries. This role required collaboration and partnerships across multi-stakeholders that include government (national and local), private sector, DFIs, and research institutes.

Blanche holds a PhD from the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU), University of Sussex, with a case study on South Africa’s energy transitions on renewable energy, and gas in the power sector, and two Masters Degrees in Climate Change and Development Studies from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), U.K. as a Mandela-Sussex Scholar, and Bioprocess Engineering at the University of Cape Town (UCT).

• Email: Elisabeth.Gilmore@carleton.ca
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Dr. Elisabeth Gilmore is Associate Professor in Environmental Engineering and Public Policy at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. Her work focuses on improving our understanding of how social, economic and political factors shape climate action. She was an author of the Summary for Policymakers and lead author of the North America Chapter of the Working Group II’s contribution to the 6th Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and is a lead on author for UN Environment Programme’s upcoming 7th Global Environmental Outlook (GEO-7). She also sits on the Scientific Committee for the World Adaptation Science Programme (WASP) and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)’s taskforce on scenarios and models and is a member of the UN Expert Group on SDG and Climate Action Synergies.

• Email: lucas.somavilla@ucl.ac.uk
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Bio

Dr. Lucas Somavilla Croxatto takes a multidisciplinary approach to science, technology, and innovation, with a focus on global climate action and Governance of complex systems. His research underscores the pivotal role of energy systems in sustainable development, examining how emerging technologies, digital transformation, and innovation policy frameworks influence global sustainability. As a Senior Research Fellow at UCL's Department of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Public Policy (STEaPP), he engages in pioneering research and policy advising. He also serves as a Science-Policy Adviser for the Climate Compatible Growth (CCG) Programme, promoting science-policy integration for sustainable development. Additionally, Dr. Somavilla Croxatto is an Associate Member of Oxford's Department of Computer Science, where he collaborates with the Human-Centred Computing Group to apply responsible AI technology design to address social, economic, and climate challenges.

Bio

Dr. Karsten Schulz is Assistant Professor in Governance and Innovation at the University of Groningen. His academic work at the intersection of climate and digital change benefits from a decade of experience in sustainable development and environmental governance research. He currently serves on the Board of the Wubbo Ockels School for Energy and Climate, where he is invested in building a climate change adaptation platform for the Northern Netherlands. Prior to joining the University of Groningen, he worked as a government consultant in the field of digital innovations and as a researcher for international organisations and climate change related research projects, including the Future Earth-led project ‘Re-imagining Climate Governance in the Digital Age’. He holds a PhD from the University of Bonn, Germany.