Climate change mitigation and energy transition

Shamika N. Sirimanne is the Director of the Division on Technology and Logistics of UNCTAD.  She leads UNCTAD's trade logistics programme, including the work on trade facilitation, maritime transport, port management, and e-commerce and the digital economy. She also supervises UNCTAD’s largest technical cooperation programme, ASYCUDA—the Automated System for Customs. 

Ms. Sirimanne has extensive experience in development policy, research and technical cooperation gained from international organizations, national governments, think tanks and universities. Prior to UNCTAD, she served as the Director of the ICT and Disaster Risk Reduction Division of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), where she spearheaded major regional cooperation programmes such as the Asia-Pacific Information Superhighway initiative, and Regional Drought Monitoring Mechanism.

During her tenure with ESCAP, Ms. Sirimanne also headed the trade facilitation programme, and led the macroeconomic policy work and ESCAP’s flagship publication, Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific. Prior to that, Ms. Sirimanne was with the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), where she led the economic policy team and the Economic Report on Africa, the flagship publication of ECA. She has also worked for the Canadian Ministry of Finance and the World Bank. Ms. Sirimanne holds a PhD in Economics.

Ramón Pichs-Madruga was elected one of the three IPCC Vice-Chairs at the 59th Session of the IPCC held in Nairobi, Kenya in July 2023. During the sixth assessment cycle he was Vice Chair of Working Group III.

He is Director at the Centre for World Economy Studies (CIEM) in Cuba since 2013, where he has been a researcher since 1986 and was Deputy Director from 1999-2013. He is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Havana since 2004. He has been an IPCC Bureau Member since 1997 and was a Co-Chair of Working Group III from 2008-2015. Member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Inter-American Institute for Research on Global Change (IAI) from 2007-2013 and was elected member of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba for the period 2012 to 2018; re-elected for 2018-2024.

He has a degree in Foreign Trade Economics from the University of Havana, a Master in Social Sciences from the University of Lund, Sweden, and a doctorate in Economics from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).

Avinash Persaud, Special Advisor on Climate Change to the President of the Inter-American Development Bank, has over 30 years of experience in finance, public policy, and academia.

Previously, he was Special Climate Envoy to the Prime Minister of Barbados and an architect of the 'Bridgetown Initiative.

Avinash is a member of the High-Level Expert Group on Climate Finance of the COP26, 27 and 28 Presidencies and a member of the first Board of the new Climate Loss and Damage Fund. He previously served as Chairman of the Caribbean Community's Commission on the Economy and Commissioner of the UN Commission on Financial Reform. Avinash also used to be a senior executive at several major banks including J. P. Morgan, State Street and UBS.

An Emeritus Professor of Gresham College in the UK, he is 2024 Perry World Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania and has won numerous awards in finance.

George Tavo is the Deputy Secretary Operations of the Ministry of Public Works, Meteorological Services and Transport of Fiji.

With a career spanning over 35 years in Government, he has served extensively across Fiji in the field of construction management, project management and contract administration working very closely with other professionals such as architects, quantity surveyors, engineers (civil, structural, mechanical and electrical) that are involved in the construction and built environment sector.

He provides advice to the Permanent Secretary and Minister on policy, administration and operational matters associated with Transport (land and maritime), shipping services, energy, meteorological and hydrological services, water and sewerage, roads and public works construction.

Kjersti Aass works for the UN Global Compact and leads the Maritime Just Transition Task Force, an initiative started by the International Chamber of Shipping, International Transport Workers' Federation, the International Maritime Organization, the International Labour Organization and UN Global Compact to ensure that shipping's response to the climate emergency puts seafarers at the heart of the solution.

In addition to her work with the UN Global Compact, she serves as Sustainability Development Director at Yara International. This large industrial and crop nutrition company is committed to driving a green transition in agriculture and shipping through clean ammonia production.

Kjersti also serves on the board of Höegh Autoliners, a global shipping company in the RoRo segment. Kjersti's previous roles include working with Doctors without Borders in Ethiopia and Afghanistan, and with the Red Cross in Nepal. She's on the emergency response unit roster of the Norwegian Red Cross.