A Special Panel hosted by the United Nations Association of New York
Paula DiPerna
Special Advisor to CDP North America
Emeka Ngwube
Managing Director
Credit Agricole Securities (USA) Inc.
Janos Pasztor
Executive Director
Carnegie Climate Governance Initiative (C2G)
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Moderated by
Franz Baumann, Ph.D.
Visiting Research Professor, New York University
Graduate School of Arts and Science
Program in International Relations
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Thursday | 23 September 2021 | 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. EST
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change. The IPCC provides regular assessments of the scientific basis of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and options for adaptation and mitigation. Created in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the objective of the IPCC is to provide governments at all levels with scientific information that they can use to develop climate policies. Although the IPCC does not conduct its own research, its reports are a key input into international climate change negotiations.
As Paula DiPerna points out, the current report by the IPCC “again shows facts that are immutable, but we live in an era where facts alone do not catalyze sufficient action. This is a social and political shortfall, not a scientific shortfall,” she says. “From the point of view of CDP, we see an increase in companies using science-based targets, to set their reduction goals, which is good. But, on the other hand, the turbulence of political systems, absence of meaningful global governance, and the failure to adequately plan years ago for climate change resilience and adaptation has left most countries scrambling to catch up with the science.”
Join us for this special panel, convened around the release of the IPCC’s latest report, when the guest participants will address certain issues and questions prompted by the report’s findings, including whether climate change could become the new economic driver for the 20th century, some of the related issues around carbon dioxide removal and solar radiation modification, the policy conversations affecting different stakeholders, and not least — how far is the science ahead of policy?
Panel Moderator
Franz Baumann
Franz Baumann spent most of his professional life as a United Nations official. His last assignment was as Special Adviser on Environment and Peace Operations with the rank of Assistant Secretary-General. He left the United Nations at the end of 2015 and joined New York University in 2017 as a Visiting Research Professor. He is a Senior Fellow and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin.
Baumann started his career at the European Parliament in Luxembourg in 1976 before transferring to the European Commission in Brussels and eventually joining Siemens in Munich. In 1980 he joined the United Nations, where he remained for more than three decades, serving in four cities on three continents in a variety of functions. In 2009, he was appointed as Assistant Secretary-General for the General Assembly and Conference Management at the headquarters in New York.
His doctorate in Political Science (African Studies) was obtained from Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.
Guest Panelists
Paula DiPerna
Paula DiPerna is Special Advisor to CDP North America. She is a pioneer of strategic global environmental and philanthropic policy, and a widely published author and media commentator on contemporary issues. Paula also serves on the Board of Advisors of Global Kids, whose mission is to develop global citizenship; the Circle of Advisors of Rachel’s Network, which links women philanthropists who have environmental interests; and the Board of Directors of The HistoryMakers, a unique oral and video archive of profiles of African-American leaders in all sectors.
As a leader in the development of carbon markets, Paula served formerly as President of the international division of the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), the world’s first cap-and-trade system covering all six greenhouse gases, which also launched the Tianjin Climate Exchange (TCX), China’s first pilot carbon market. She also served formerly as President of the Joyce Foundation, a major U.S. philanthropy, and as a writer, co-producer and Vice President for International Affairs for the Cousteau Society, whose principal was oceans pioneer Jacques-Yves Cousteau, with whose expeditions she travelled around the world.
Emeka Ngwube
Emeka Ngwube is a Managing Director and Head of Project Bond & Distributed Generation Finance for the Americas at Credit Agricole Securities (USA) Inc. in New York. He has extensive Project Finance and sustainable investment experience, having closed over US$20BN of financings worldwide, with half of them in emerging markets.
Over his 23 years at international financing institutions, Credit Agricole Securities and previously Credit Suisse, Emeka has acted as a lever to scale up support for clean energy, sustainable finance and low emission projects. He currently champions expansion into new strategic sectors, such as Distributed Generation (e.g. rooftop solar, storage).
Earlier in his career, he led the first-ever financing of a wind project using the Capital Markets. This 2003 groundbreaking transaction unlocked access to institutional capital for renewables. Since then, over US$40BN in financing have been raised in the Capital Markets for 175 wind and solar projects around the world.
De-risking of projects and bringing innovations to the markets has been a core of Emeka’s career. He has built a global network of relationships with the key private and public sector stakeholders for climate finance — from leading renewable companies to institutional investors and multilateral organizations.
In adition to co-managing the Green Climate Fund accreditation for Credit Agricole, Emeka launched high-profile knowledge sharing and outreach initiatives, notably an Annual Global Project Finance Bond Conference, now in its 6th edition. He also authored market intelligence publications, available on Credit Agricole website, guiding on best practices for solar, wind financing.
Prior to banking, Emeka was a Project Manager in the hydro-power generation group of EDF, the French Electric Utility. Previously, he was Deputy Scientific Attaché at the Mission for Science and Technology of the French Embassy in Washington, DC.
Emeka holds an MBA from the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania and a MSc. in Applied Mathematics from Ecole Centrale Lille in France.
Janos Pasztor
Janos Pasztor is currently Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs and is the Executive Director of the Carnegie Climate Governance Initiative (C2G). He has over 4 decades of work experience in the areas of energy, environment, climate change and sustainable development. Before taking up his current assignment he was UN Assistant Secretary-General for Climate Change in New York under Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Earlier, he was Acting Executive Director for Conservation (2014) and Policy and Science Director (2012-14) at WWF-International. He directed the UNSG’s Climate Change Support Team (2008-10) and later was Executive Secretary of the UNSG’s High-level Panel on Global Sustainability (2010-2012). In 2007 he directed the Geneva-based UN Environment Management Group (EMG). During 1993-2006 he worked, and over time held different responsibilities at the Climate Change Secretariat (UNFCCC), initially in Geneva, Switzerland and later in Bonn, Germany.
His other assignments included: in the Secretariat of the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit ’92); Stockholm Environment Institute; United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP); Secretariat of the World Commission on Environment and Development (Brundtland Commission); the Beijer Institute; and the World Council of Churches.
He has BSc and MSc degrees in Nuclear Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). High-school diploma from the Nairobi School in Kenya.