Dr. Sonja Klinsky is an Associate Professor at the School of Sustainability, Arizona State University. After completing her doctoral work at the University of British Columbia, Sonja Klinsky held post-doctoral fellowships with the Centre for Climate Change Mitigation at the University of Cambridge, and the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions in Vancouver, Canada. Her work has continually centered around the justice dilemmas presented by climate change and climate change policy design. Professor Klinsky has been an observer to the UN framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations since 2009 which has been a foundation to her collaborative work with policy-science interface organizations. These collaborations have sought to generate theoretically sound and politically relevant proposals for constructively addressing debates about justice and fairness embedded in climate policy decision-making at all scales. In addition to this policy-oriented work she has also done research on public perceptions of climate justice dilemmas and policy options.

Sebastián Carranza Tovar is the Director of Climate Change and Risk Management, Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development.

He is a chemical engineer with a master’s degree in energy and sustainable development from the Polytechnic School of Montreal, and additional studies in governance and public management. He has over 12 years of experience in environmental governance and project management for climate action, 8 of which as a sustainable development manager, climate change officer, and negotiator for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Additionally, he has experience in Latin America and the Caribbean as an expert in transparency and ambition in climate action, focusing mainly on resilient and low-carbon development, as well as markets for climate action. In the last 4 years, he led the development of implementation plans, economic, financial, regulatory, and technological instruments to structure the international climate commitments of several countries in the region from the regional office of UN Environment for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Evelyn Addor is a Development Communication Professional and a Climate Justice Activist from Ghana. She is a trained Climate Reality Leader, a member of the African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET), and a member of Forest Watch Ghana. Evelyn is passionate about youth and women’s development, sustainable natural resources and environmental governance, climate Justice, accountable and participatory natural resource management, and clean energy.

She currently works with EcoCare Ghana as the Communications Officer and Focal Person for the Climate Generations Project. She is also a Climate Negotiator on Loss and Damage and Action for Climate Empowerment.

Dr. Heiner von Lüpke is a Senior Researcher at the Climate Policy Department of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin). Prior to joining DIW Berlin, he spent 3 years at UN-FAO headquarters working on forest and climate policies, 7.5 years with GIZ as climate policy advisor to the Indonesian government for UNFCCC COP 13, and national climate policy and finance topics. Upon return to Germany, he spent 3 years advising the German government on international climate policy such as NDCs, coal finance phase out and strategies for climate and development support. He holds a B.Sc. and MSc in international forestry sciences, as well as Latin-American studies from Technical University of Dresden and a PhD in political sciences from  Heidelberg University on the topic of cross-sectoral integration of climate policies in Mexico and Indonesia. His currently research interests include interactions of international climate finance flows with national climate and development policies, as a well as international climate cooperation in the context of climate clubs and alliances.

Shamim Ahmed Mridha, from Bangladesh, is one of the youth advisors of the “Asia-Pacific Youth Advisory Group on Environmental and Climate Justice” by UNDP Asia Pacific, UNFCCC, and UN Human Rights. He is the founder of Eco-Network, which is one of the largest youth groups in the Asia-Pacific region. Through his “Climate School” project, he organized various workshops and training programs that provided climate education to more than 50,000 kids and youth. He was given “The Diana Award for 2022” for his work to protect climate, nature, and the environment. He also participated in COP27, the UN Climate Conference, and represented the youth group from Asia and the Pacific. Recently, he has joined the UN Water Conference, which was held in UN Headquarters, while also participating in different side events as a speaker and talking about water, salinity, and WASH. Shamim completed his undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the Environmental Science Department, Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP). He has also been involved with the climate movement for the last 4 years and is very active in this field.

Dr. Benjamin K. Sovacool is Professor of Earth and Environment at Boston University in the United States, where he is the Founding Director of the Institute for Global Sustainability, as well as Professor of Energy Policy at the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at the University of Sussex Business School in the United Kingdom.  He is also University Distinguished Professor of Business & Social Sciences at Aarhus University in Denmark. Professor Sovacool works as a researcher and consultant on issues pertaining to energy policy, energy justice, energy security, climate change mitigation, and climate change adaptation. 

Dr. Elina Brutschin joined IIASA as a research scholar in 2019, and works with the IIASA Energy, Climate, and Environment (ECE) Program, with a research focus on bridging insights from the political economy and modeling studies of energy. In her most recent line of work she has focused on developing tools to evaluate feasibility of ambitious climate scenarios from different perspectives. In her past research she has for example, analyzed political drivers and constraints of investments in renewable energy, the role of international cooperation in the diffusion of nuclear energy and the conditions for a successful coordination of regional gas policies. Dr. Brutschin has published in journals such as Environmental Research Letters, Energy Policy and Energy Economics, and with publishers such as Oxford University Press and Palgrave.