William Acworth

International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP)

William has close to a decade experience working in climate and energy policy, spread across public, private and academic institutions. Currently, he works for the International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP), where he leads technical research programs as well as ICAP’s capacity building activities.  Prior to joining ICAP, William worked as a Research Associate in the Climate Policy team at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin). While there, he was responsible for range of international projects that assessed emissions trading in Europe and abroad. Before relocating to Berlin, William held positions with ACIL Allen, a leading Australian economics and public policy consulting firm, and the Australian Bureau for Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARES). He has published in top ranking Environmental Economic Journals, research working papers as well as confidential reports for public and private sector clients. William holds a Masters in Public Policy from the Hertie School of Governance and a Bachelor of Resource Economics (Hons.) from the University of Sydney

Malin Ahlberg

The Federal Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU)

Malin Ahlberg is Deputy Head of the Division “European Climate and Energy Policy, New Market Mechanisms” at the German Federal Ministry for the Environment and has been working in the field of carbon market and carbon pricing for twelve years. She is responsible for the subject areas of carbon pricing and international market mechanisms. Malin is a director of the German Foundation “Future of the Carbon Market” which was established by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment in 2010. In addition, Malin Ahlberg is the German focal point for the Partnership of Market Readiness (PMR) of the World Bank and helped found the Carbon Market Platform in 2015. Before she started her carrier at the ministry, she worked as a scientific expert at the German Emissions Trading Authority commissioned research projects in the field of global carbon market issues. Malin is a degreed engineer of the technical university of Berlin.

Susanne Åkerfeldt

Senior Adviser, Ministry of Finance, Sweden

Susanne Åkerfeldt has a solid background in senior policy making at Governmental level. As a Senior Adviser at the Swedish Ministry of Finance, she has more than 20 years’ experience of managing projects on policy design in the area of energy and environment, seeking solutions and compromises in a politically sensitive environment nationally and at EU level. Her key focus is to ensure the use of cost-efficient policy measures on the road towards a sustainable, low-carbon and resource-efficient society. She is working closely with the political level in analyzing and drafting various proposals in the annual national budget negotiations as well as developing the Government’s strategic plans and work programs. She has been instrumental in fine-tuning the design of the Swedish carbon tax since the 1990s and has been a team leader of energy and climate taxation projects within the Swedish Government Offices since 2001. She serves as Sweden’s lead EU negotiator on energy and climate taxation issues and has worked extensively at EU-level to improve and coordinate the design of EU tax and state aid legislation to better reflect the Polluter Pays Principle and encouraging Member States to increasingly use environmental taxes. In a broader international context she has presented and debated carbon tax experiences before the UN Tax Committee and the COP conferences on climate under the UNFCC, as well as participated in a number of international conferences.   Susanne received her law degree from the University of Uppsala and worked as a judge at different courts in Sweden before starting her career at the Ministry of Finance.

Maosheng Duan

Director, China Carbon Market Center, Tsinghua University

Prof. DUAN Maosheng is the director of China Carbon Market Center (CCMC) of Tsinghua University. He has been working on carbon market since 2000 and a member of the Chinese climate delegation since 2001, responsible for issues related to market-based mechanisms. He has been a member or an alternate of the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism Executive Board since 2010 and served as chair of the board in 2012. As one of the major advisers to the Chinese government on carbon market issues, Mr. Duan has been intensively involved in the design and operation of China’s domestic carbon market, including the clean development mechanism, voluntary emission reduction, as well as pilot and the national emissions trading systems. One of his latest assignments is to coordinate the design of the framework of China’s national emissions trading system.

Anirban Ghosh

Chief Sustainability Officer, Mahindra Group

Anirban has worked with the USD 19 billion Mahindra Group since 1999 where he is currently the Group’s Chief Sustainability Officer. He leads the strategy and implementation of the Group’s sustainability drive. He has shaped Mahindra’s award winning sustainability framework and has been acknowledged as “Distinguished Chief Sustainability Officer”

Anirban has held roles in Sales, Marketing and Strategy in Mahindra’s farm business and has been the President of Mahindra USA. He has created strategies leading to Mahindra becoming the largest tractor company in the world and expanding beyond farm equipment into the entire agricultural value chain. He has also led an impactful project in which the income of 20,000 rural Indians more than doubled in 5 years.

Anirban has served on the committees of many Industry Associations in India and USA, including the Board of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, USA. He has been a guest lecturer at business schools in India and enjoys music, travelling, cricket and tennis.

Sharlin Hemraj

Senior Economist, National treasury of South Africa

Rachael Jonassen

Director, Greenhouse Gas Management Program, The George Washington University

Dr. Jonassen advised the Department of Energy as it established the federal greenhouse gas reporting program, and led development of greenhouse gas inventories for multiple federal agencies. Rachael also co-authored protocols for greenhouse gas accounting and assessment of mitigation goals. At the National Science Foundation, she directed basic research on the global carbon cycle, coordinated international efforts in carbon cycle research for the US Global Change Research Program, and helped manage the North American Carbon Program. Her work at NSF was recognized with the NSF Director’s Award. Her research is reported in more than 70 professional papers and five books. Rachael is a certified Project Management Professional and an elected Fellow of the Geological Society of America.

Adele Morris

Senior Fellow, Economic Studies and Policy Director, Climate and Energy Economics Project, The Brookings Institute

Adele Morris is a senior fellow and policy director for Climate and Energy Economics at the Brookings Institution. Her research informs critical decisions related to climate change, energy, and tax policy. She is a leading global expert on the design of carbon pricing policies.

She joined Brookings in July 2008 from the Joint Economic Committee (JEC) of the U.S. Congress, where she advised members and staff on economic, energy, and environmental policy. Before her work in Congress, Morris was the lead natural resource economist for the U.S. Treasury Department for nine years. In that position, she informed and represented Treasury’s positions on agriculture, energy, climate, and radio spectrum policies. On assignment to the U.S. Department of State in 2000, she led negotiations on land use and forestry issues in the international climate change treaty process. Prior to joining the Treasury, she served as the senior economist for environmental affairs at the President’s Council of Economic Advisers during the development of the Kyoto Protocol. Morris began her career at the Office of Management and Budget, where she oversaw rulemaking by agriculture and natural resource agencies. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton University, an M.S. in Mathematics from the University of Utah, and a B.A. from Rice University.

Grzegorz Peszko

Lead Economist, Climate Change Group, World Bank

Grzegorz Peszko is a Lead Economist in the Climate Change Group of the World Bank where he leads analytical and advisory services on economics of climate change mitigation, as well as climate, energy, economic and fiscal policies. Prior to joining the World Bank he worked for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development as a lead energy/environmental economist and for the OECD as an environmental finance program manager. He was also an associate professor at the Krakow University of Economics, policy adviser for several governments, private consultant and investment project developer. He was a lead author of the IPPC 3rd Assessment Report (WGIII), and (co)author of several journal articles and books. Grzegorz holds MSc in economics from University College London, MSc in political sciences from Yagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland and PhD in economics from Krakow University of Economics.