Elizabeth Bomberg

University of Edinburgh

Elizabeth Bomberg is Professor of Environmental Politics and deputy Head of Politics and International Relations at the University of Edinburgh. She was educated in California before moving to Britain. She has taught at several Universities in the UK and the US, and has held research posts in Brussels and at the University of California. Her areas of expertise include comparative environmental politics and policy, climate change activism and negotiations, and US and EU politics.

Elizabeth serves as the University lead on UNA Europa Sustainability Self-Steering Committee, and is Programme Co-Director for the MSc Global Environment, Politics, and Society. She is an enthusiastic teacher and continually inspired by the hope, energy, and ideas of the next generation of climate scholars and activists.

Sarah Shanley Hope

The Solutions Project

Sarah Shanley Hope is the VP of Brand and Partnerships at The Solutions Project following seven years as the organisation’s first Executive Director. Under Sarah’s leadership, the organisation transformed its mission and culture to centre racial and gender equity, launched the field’s first and only award-winning intermediary climate and equity fund, and grew a celebratory, collaborative, and inclusive movement for 100% clean energy.

Sarah has held executive or leadership roles at the Alliance for Climate Education, Green For All, Cargill, and Best Buy over her 15 plus years of experience in brand strategy and social change. She has raised and helped deploy more than $50 million in support of a racial equity and climate solutions agenda over her tenure in the field.

Shanley Hope graduated with an MBA from the University of Minnesota and a BA in political science from Vassar College. She grew up in Buffalo, New York and lives with her husband, daughters, and dog in Oakland, California, where she also sits on the Board of Native Renewables.

Sarah’s work has been featured in a range of outlets including The New York Times, People Magazine, and The Daily Show. She has spoken about the vision, strategies, and stories of change at the intersection of climate solutions and equity as part of TEDxMidAtlantic, Climate One, the Social Venture Network, and Bioneers.

Julie Cerqueira

US Climate Alliance

Julie Cerqueira is the Executive Director of the US Climate Alliance, where she helps to advance the climate and clean energy policy priorities of the Alliance’s Governors and their offices. Ms Cerqueira most recently served as a Senior Advisor to the Special Envoy for Climate Change, later joining the Office of Global Change, both with the US Department of State.

In this role, she led US engagement in strategic partnerships, such as the Climate and Clean Air Coalition, helped launch high profile climate deliverables for North America and the US Chairmanship of the Arctic Council, and led the Department’s engagement with sub-national governments on climate change, amongst other priorities.

Prior to her work in the federal government, Ms Cerqueira worked with developing countries on designing and implementing sectoral climate policies at a climate think tank, and spent four years in Southeast Asia working with local communities, governments, and the private sector on environmental projects and promoting policy reforms.

Pete Ogden

United Nations Foundation

Pete Ogden is Vice President for Energy, Climate, and the Environment at the United Nations Foundation. Prior to joining the Foundation, he was Senior Fellow for International Energy and Climate Policy at the Center for American Progress, Senior Advisor and Fellow at the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago, and Senior Advisor at the Rhodium Group.

During the Obama administration, he served in the White House as Senior Director for Energy and Climate Change on the Domestic Policy Council, and Director for International Climate Change and Environmental Policy on the National Security Council, as well as at the State Department as Chief of Staff to the Special Envoy for Climate Change.

Before his government roles, he was the Chief of Staff at the Center for American Progress. His writing on energy and climate issues has appeared in Foreign Affairs, the Financial Times, the Washington Post, and a variety of other outlets.

Matthew Brander

University of Edinburgh Business School

Matthew has worked since 2006 in greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting and climate change policy appraisal, in consultancy and academia.

He has participated in the development of numerous international standards for GHG accounting, including the revision of ISO 14064 parts 1 and 2, ISO 14067, and as chapter lead author for the GHG Protocol’s Policy and Actions Standard. He is a member of the Woodland Carbon Code's Advisory Board, and is on the peer-review panel for the UK Government's conversion factors for company reporting.

He has a PhD in Carbon Accounting from the University of Edinburgh, a MSc in Environmental Sustainability, a MSc by research in Philosophy of Language, and a MA in Mental Philosophy.

Matthew’s research interests are in greenhouse gas (carbon) accounting, focusing on the various methods and standards that are available, and the appropriate use-context of those methods. He has a particular interest in exploring the distinction between attributional and consequential methods, and applying that distinction to understand the conceptual nature of different carbon accounting methods.

Matthew is also interested in the issue of green power accounting, and the importance of additionality for ensuring corporate greenhouse gas accounts are accurate and relevant to decision making. An open access paper on this issue is available at:

Matthew’s further interests are in greenhouse gas accounting for bioenergy, greenhouse gas removal, the construction sector, and the alignment of financial flows with the Paris Agreement.

Derik Broekhoff

Stockholm Environment Institute

Derik Broekhoff has over 20 years of experience in energy and climate policy. His current work focuses on the effective design and implementation of environmental market mechanisms, and assessing subnational and local climate mitigation policies.

Prior to joining Stockholm Environment Institute, Derik was Vice President for Policy at the Climate Action Reserve in Los Angeles, where he oversaw development of the Reserve’s voluntary carbon offset program and its transition into California’s regulatory cap-and-trade program.

Before that, he led work for the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Initiative at the World Resources Institute, focusing on how to quantify emission reductions from renewable energy projects.

He has advised numerous state, national, and multi-national policy initiatives on carbon accounting and program design, including voluntary and regulatory offset programs and programs to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD+).

Derik has a master's degree in public policy (MPP) from the University of California at Berkeley, and a bachelor's degree in international relations from Stanford University.

Tracey Osborne

University of California Merced

Tracey Osborne is Associate Professor and Presidential Endowed Chair in the Management of Complex Systems Department at the University of California Merced. She is also the Founding Director of the University of California Center for Climate Justice.

Tracey’s research focuses on the social and political economic dimensions of climate change mitigation in tropical forests and the role of Indigenous Peoples, the politics of climate finance, global environmental governance, and climate equity and justice. She has worked on these issues globally with extensive field experience in Mexico and the Amazon (Peru, Ecuador, and Guyana).

She also leads the Climate Alliance Mapping Project, a collaborative effort between academics, environmental non-governmental organisations, and Indigenous organisations working for a socially-just response to climate change through research, maps, and digital stories.

Her work has been published in high-impact geography, social science, and interdisciplinary journals, and she has been invited to share her research internationally in academic and non-academic venues such as the Conference of the Parties climate change meetings. She received her PhD from the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California Berkeley.

Owen Hewlett

Gold Standard

Owen is the Chief Technical Officer at the Gold Standard Foundation. Owen has been at the Gold Standard since 2014, his work there involves setting high quality standards for climate and sustainable action and making sense of where they fit amongst the various corporate, market, and finance options to support them.

Owen’s background and expertise is in carbon accounting, sustainable development, and social and environmental safeguards. He began his career in the construction industry before becoming involved in climate and sustainability.