ACT now! Technical and financial approaches for coal asset transition

Mafalda has led the Climate Investment Funds since 2014. During her tenure, she has overseen hundreds of clean energy and climate resilience investments in 72 countries worldwide. The largest solar park in the world and South America’s first geothermal power plant are among the numerous projects realized under her leadership. Mafalda is now expanding the remit of the organization into new areas, which includes accelerating out of the coal and industry decarbonization phase. Committed to putting fairness and equality at the heart of climate finance, she has launched the Climate Investment Funds’ Just Transition Initiative to help achieve that aim.  Mafalda previously held senior roles at the African Development Bank and the World Bank. A much sought-after speaker on climate finance, she has been quoted in Reuters, BBC World Service, The Economist, and the Financial Times, among many others.

Jürgen Zattler is Deputy Director General for Multilateral and European Policy in the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Before he was Head of the Division of World Bank and International Monetary Fund on debt related issues, and Deputy Head of Division for trade policy on World Trade Organization. His prior experience in the public and private sector includes the European Commission in Brussels, where he worked on macroeconomic issues related to developing countries and the Dresdner Bank in Berlin. Mr. Zattler is a development and macroeconomist with more than 30 years of experience in international cooperation. Until the end of 2020 he served as World Bank Group Executive Director representing Germany. Prior he had various positions in the BMZ, the European Commission and a private bank. Jürgen Karl Zattler studied economics and political science. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Giessen (trade theory and policy).

Masyita Crystallin is Special Advisor on Macroeconomic and Fiscal Policy to the Minister of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia.

Rudi Dicks is the Head of the Project Management Office (PMO) in the Private Office of the President of South Africa. He is responsible for supporting the implementation of the Presidential Employment Stimulus, the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative as well as unblocking regulatory challenges that impact on employment an economic growth. He jointly leads Operation Vulindlela which has been established as a joint initiative between the Presidency and National Treasury to accelerate structural reforms. In his previous role, he was an Outcomes Facilitator at the Department of Planning Monitoring and Evaluation, responsible for monitoring the performance of economic and infrastructure outcomes’ and supporting various economic interventions across government. In this role he established the Socio-Economic Impact Assessment System (SEIAS). He also formally served as the Executive Director of the National Labor and Economic Development Institute (NALEDI), the research arm of COSATU from 2008 to 2013. Before 2008, he worked at COSATU and its affiliates, in various capacities since 1994. Rudi has a Post-Graduate Diploma in Economic Principles as well as a Master of Science (MSc) Finance from the University of London. He also completed a Management Advanced Program at WITS Business School.

Tim Gould  was appointed the Agency’s Chief Energy Economist in 2021. As Chief Energy Economist, he provides strategic advice on energy economics across a wide range of IEA activities and analysis. Mr Gould is also Head of the Division for Energy Supply and Investment Outlooks, in which capacity he co-leads the World Energy Outlook, the IEA’s flagship publication, and oversees the Agency’s work on investment and finance, including the World Energy Investment report.

Chandra Govindarajalu leads the energy climate finance team which is responsible for mobilizing climate finance for the Energy and Extractives Practice at the World Bank working with global funds and bilateral funds including the Climate Investment Funds (CIF), the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and others  He also leads the global energy storage program and the coal transition programs at the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP). He has over 20 years of experience working at the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) on renewable energy, energy storage, energy efficiency and energy access across 15 countries in South Asia, East Asia as well as Middle East and North Africa. Chandra holds a PhD in Energy and Environmental Policy from the Biden School of Public Policy and Administration, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware.

Yatin Premchand has 22 years of experience in consultative business development, commercialization, and scale-up of clean technologies, with a keen understanding of related policy and regulation advisory globally backed by a degree in Environmental Science and Business. He is a strategic specialist in Asia and the Pacific across public and private sectors, including finance, with successive achievements in de-risking investment and project development, technology diligence and transfer.

Abhishek Bhaskar leads the CIF’s ACT Investment Program, it’s Technical Assistance Facility for clean energy investments along with CIF’s JETP engagement in South Africa. With previous jobs at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the United Nation’s Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the World Bank, Abhishek has over 15 years of clean energy/ climate finance experience working on blended finance, green bonds, compliance grade carbon assets, climate metrics and regulatory frameworks. He holds Masters’ degrees in Economics and Finance.

Garth has 17 years of experience in the Federal Government of Canada, most recently serving as Senior Advisor the Deputy Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada on climate change policy. Prior to joining Environment and Climate Change Canada in 2001, he held numerous positions at Global Affairs Canada and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada where he worked on a wide range of international issues including agriculture subsidies, food security, sustainable development and trade. Garth represented Canada at the World Trade Organization (WTO) from 2012 to 2017, serving as Chairperson of the WTO Committee on Agriculture in 2016-17.