GARP 2026 Climate and Nature Risk Symposium

Professor Jason A. Lowe OBE is a Principal Fellow and Head of Climate Services for Government at the Met Office, and Chair in Interdisciplinary Climate Research in the Priestley Centre at the University of Leeds. 

Jason has over 20 years of experience as a climate researcher and research leader, contributing to scientific journal publications on a diverse range of subjects relevant to both climate mitigation and adaptation. His expertise includes: selection and design of climate scenarios, climate impacts, tipping points and high impact events, earth system modelling, sea-level rise, interfacing of IAM and climate models, risk assessment, climate services and application of climate data to real-world sectors including infrastructure. 

He leads the UKCP project, which developed innovative new climate scenarios for the UK and which are being used in the 3rd National Adaptation Programme. Internationally, Jason has contributed to all three working groups of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and many UN climate reports. He regularly provides advice to Government and other stakeholders on climate variability and change. 

A recent focus has been to provide information and guidance on climate change to the finance sector. He works closely with the Climate Financial Risk Forum, and he recently joined the new NGFS Scenario Technical Advisory Group. He also co-directs the project to update the independent scientific report for the 4th UK national climate change risk assessment. 

Patrick Amis is head of the Directorate General Specialised Institutions and LSIs at the European Central Bank, entrusted with the direct supervision of 55 significant banks and the oversight of the less significant institutions within the European Single Supervision Mechanism. He is also in charge of the integration of climate-related risks into the European Central Banks’ supervisory approach. Before his current appointment he joined the ECB in March 2014 as Deputy Director General at the Directorate General Micro-Prudential Supervision I, responsible for the direct supervision of the 30 largest and more complex of the significant institutions in the Eurozone, and then as Director General of LSI oversight.

Before joining the ECB, Patrick Amis had a supervisory career in the Banque de France, which he joined in 1995, where he took a variety of positions in line supervision and prudential policy. He also chaired working groups on accounting, both in the Basel Committee and in the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS) and was Deputy Secretary General of CEBS from 2008 to 2010.

Gemma Bale is Associate Professor in Medical Therapeutics at the University of Cambridge. In her role as a Programme Director at the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA), she is leading a £81m programme called Forecasting Tipping Points which aims to create an early warning system for climate tipping points that equips the world with the information we need to build resilience and accelerate proactive climate adaptation.

Dr. Maria Caffrey is a climate scientist and Principal Scientist at the UK’s National Physical Laboratory, where she works on climate modelling, risk analysis, and metrology to support science based decision making. Before joining NPL, she worked in the U.S. climate tech sector, including as Principal Climate Scientist at Gro Intelligence, leading the development of global climate risk products. She holds a PhD in Geography from the University of Tennessee, specializing in paleoclimatology.

Hannah is Chief Operating Officer at B4NZ and has over a decade of experience with the Big4 leading major transformation programmes and for the last 5 years has worked with executive leadership teams and boards, advising on ESG and sustainability strategy.

Hannah has worked with major cross sector organisations, focussing on climate change and risk management. In doing this Hannah has been compelled to work with market coalitions and initiatives which define the future ecosystem where finance can flow with ease and organisations demonstrating the right sustainable behaviours are financially rewarded.

The challenges of facilitating the flow of capital to the real economy and working across innovative market solutions is what lead Hannah to join B4NZ.

J. Doyne Farmer is Director of the Complexity Economics programme at the Institute for New Economic Thinking and Baillie Gifford Professor of Complex Systems Science at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford. He is also External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute and Chief Scientist at Macrocosm.

His current research is in economics, including agent-based modeling, financial instability and technological progress. He was a founder of Prediction Company, a quantitative automated trading firm that was sold to UBS in 2006. His past research includes complex systems, dynamical systems theory, time series analysis and theoretical biology. His book, Making Sense of Chaos: A Better Economics for a Better World, was published in 2024.

During the 1980s he was an Oppenheimer Fellow and the founder of the Complex Systems Group at Los Alamos National Laboratory. While a graduate student in the 1970s he built the first wearable digital computer, which was successfully used to predict the game of roulette.

Rohan Hamden is Director of Global Banking at Jupiter Intelligence, where he drives the integration of physical climate risk and adaptation insights into underwriting, stress testing, and long term portfolio strategy for major banks and financial institutions. He works with global risk teams to translate advanced climate science into decision grade analytics that support resilient capital allocation.

Rohan joined Jupiter after more than two decades shaping the climate risk landscape across government, industry, and finance. He is the former CEO and co founder of XDI: The Cross Dependency Initiative, where he built a globally recognized business delivering forward looking climate risk intelligence for financial, corporate, and government clients. Under his leadership, XDI earned multiple international awards for innovation in climate resilience.

His career began as a firefighter before moving into nearly 15 years of public service. As Director of the Climate Adaptation Program for South Australia, he designed and led the state’s multi award winning adaptation framework, transforming how communities and industries prepare for climate impacts. He has advised governments across Australia, Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom on climate adaptation strategy and infrastructure risk.

In addition to his role at Jupiter, Rohan is Founder and CEO of Adaptation Advisory, supporting high growth companies with strategic leadership and product development expertise. He holds an MBA from the University of Adelaide and a Bachelor of Applied Science from the University of South Australia.

Professor Aled Jones is the inaugural Director of the Global Sustainability Institute (GSI) at Anglia Ruskin University. His work in climate finance has been recognised by the State of California and he has received a key to the city of North Little Rock, Arkansas. In 2018 he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Institute & Faculty of Actuaries and currently chairs their Biodiversity Working Party. Aled’s research particularly focuses on the finance sector and government and how they will respond to the impacts of global resource trends and climate change. He was chair of the Capital Markets Climate Initiative (CMCI) on behalf of the UK Minister for Climate Change in the Department for Energy and Climate Change and a member of the UK-US Taskforce on Extreme Weather and Global Food Resilience for the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office. He is a member of the Expert Panel for the HRH Prince of Wales’ Accounting for Sustainability (A4S). He was an invited author on Chapter 7 (international dimensions of risk) for the UK Government’s 3rd Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA3) which was published in 2021.

Alicia Kedzierski is the Head of Department for Sustainable Finance at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and is responsible for leading across strategic priorities, policy and technical delivery. This includes embedding Sustainable Finance across the FCA’s activities. Alicia has led the Sustainability Disclosure Requirements (SDR) Policy, the Vote Reporting Group, as well as the FCA's work on Transition Finance, Transition Planning, and other high-profile projects. She is also Co-Chair of the IOSCO Assurance Workstream on Sustainable Finance. 

Alicia previously led critical projects for the FCA, including the regulatory response to the Cost-of-Living Crisis. Her experience spans the UK and working across the Middle East and Africa, including development projects. Previously, Alicia worked at Deloitte, the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Bank of England. Her background is in Law. 

David K. Kelly is Chief Science Officer at MKM Research Labs and author of "Weather Patterns to Physical Risk Swaps" (open publication) and "Handbook of Model Risk Management for Vendors" (Amazon). He has 30 years of experience in investment banking, including senior positions in front office and risk at global systemically important banks.

Kamil is a Co-Founder and COO at Climate X, a financial services-focused and London-based data & analytics firm quantifying climate risk ratings and associated losses at an asset-level scale.

Kamil is a statistician and econometrician with a passion for tinkering with all kinds of models that project the future. He has an extensive experience in risk management and treasury functions across tier 1 banks and consultancies globally, including Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group and Accenture.

Outside of Climate X, Kamil is a NED and a member of several climate-related initiatives. He's also part of the ClimateTech Council.

Laurie Laybourn is executive director of the Strategic Climate Risks Initiative (SCRI), a think-do tank that helps develop capabilities for securing a better world even as the environmental crisis escalates. He is an associate fellow at Chatham House, a visiting fellow at the Global Systems Institute, University of Exeter, and an associate fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR). He is a trustee of the New Economics Foundation (NEF) and sits on the board of the Economic Change Unit, an organisation he founded. Previously, he was Director of the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change and has worked at the LSE, Oxford University, and the UK Parliament. Laurie regularly appears on television, radio, and in print.

Professor Tim Lenton is the founding Director of the Global Systems Institute at the University of Exeter and Chair in Climate Change and Earth System Science. He has more than 25 years research experience, focused on modelling of the biosphere, climate, biogeochemical cycles, and associated tipping points. Tim is renowned for his work identifying climate tipping points, which informed the setting of the 1.5C climate target, associated net zero targets, and nationally determined contributions. 

Tim works with policymakers and businesses helping them assess the risks of climate change and nature loss and highlighting the opportunities for ‘positive tipping points’ that can accelerate change towards net zero. In 2023, Professor Lenton led a team of more than 200 people from over 90 organisations in 26 countries to produce an authoritative assessment of the risks and opportunities of both negative and positive tipping points in the Earth system and society. The ‘Global Tipping Points Report’ produced in partnership with Bezos Earth Fund was published at COP28. 

George is a consultant in the public communication of climate change, and the psychological obstacles to attitude and behaviour change. His key interest is the design of narratives that can build a consensus for climate action across the whole of society. His insights draw on hundreds of focus groups and structured interviews listening to people expressing their hopes, fears and doubts about climate change.

His book “Don’t Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change”, explores the social and psychological obstacles to climate action. It is currently on its seventh printing and was listed by Esquire as one of the ‘15 essential books on climate change.

Jo Paisley is President of the GARP Risk Institute, the thought leadership arm of GARP. Set up in early 2018, the Institute works across all risk disciplines, with Jo’s focus to date on climate risk management and scenario analysis, stress testing and operational resilience.

Her career began at the Bank of England where she worked in a variety of roles across macroeconomics, statistics, supervision and risk. Her last role was as a Director of the Supervisory Risk Specialists Division within the Prudential Regulation Authority, where she was heavily involved in the design and execution of the UK’s first concurrent stress test in 2014. She left the Bank in 2015 and joined HSBC as their Global Head of Stress Testing. She has also worked as an independent stress testing consultant, advising firms on how to get the most value out of stress testing.

 Professor Nicola Ranger is Executive Director of Earth Capital Nexus and Professor in Practice of Natural Capital, Risk and Finance in the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She leads interdisciplinary research and policy engagement at the nexus of finance, investment, natural capital, resilience and sustainable development with a global focus.

Professor Ranger is a globally recognized expert in sustainable finance, climate and nature, and systemic resilience. Her research focuses on integrating climate and nature risks into financial decision-making, developing innovative financial instruments, green fiscal policy, debt sustainability and mobilizing investment for sustainable development. She works closely with financial institutions, central banks, governments, and international organizations.

Nicola brings two decades of experience working in senior roles across government, research, international financial institutions and the private sector and has published extensively on topics related to sustainable finance, risk, resilience, nature and development. She is also the founding Director of the Resilient Planet Finance Lab in collaboration with the University of Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute and serves on several high-level advisory groups, including those for the World Bank, the Bank of England’s Climate Financial Risk Forum, the Network for Greening the Financial System, TRASE, Natural State and PlanetaryX.

David Stainforth is a Professorial Research Fellow in the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics, and an Honorary Professor in the Physics Department at the University of Warwick. He pursues research on climate science and its relationship with climate economics and policy. He focuses particularly on uncertainty analysis and on how academic assessments can better support societal and business decisions related to climate change.

David has a BA in Physics from Oxford University, an MSc in “Energy Systems and Environmental Management” from Glasgow Caledonian University, and a DPhil in “Uncertainty and Confidence in Predictions of Climate Change” again from Oxford University. He co-founded and was chief scientist of climateprediction.net - a large, citizen-science computing project designed to explore the consequences of model error in complex climate models. He has published on a diverse range of subjects including climate modelling and model interpretation, climate physics, nonlinear dynamical systems, the philosophy of climate science, climate economics, hydrology, geomorphology etc.

His book, “Predicting Our Climate Future: What we know, what we don’t know and what we can’t know”, is published by OUP.

Rhian-Mari Thomas is CEO of the Green Finance Institute, an organisation at the forefront of shaping how finance can be used to facilitate real economy transition. 

Rhian previously spent 20 years in investment banking and corporate finance and was the first person to be awarded an OBE for services to green banking. She is a former member of the Taskforce on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and is Senior Advisor to the Taskforce on Nature-Related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), having co-chaired its launch. 

Rhian serves as a trustee of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) UK, and advisor to the carbon credit ratings agency, BeZero Carbon. She also serves on several working groups and advisory boards for the UK Government, Welsh Senedd and the World Economic Forum. 

A fluent Welsh speaker, Rhian holds a PhD in Physics from Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. 

Vicky White has been Director of Insurance and Cross-Sectoral Policy at the Prudential Regulation Authority since July 2024. Previously she was the PRA's Head of US Banks Supervision and before that the Head of the Bank of England’s Macroprudential Strategy and Support Division, supporting the Financial Policy Committee’s policy decisions and communications. She served as the UK’s Alternate Executive Director on the Board of the IMF for over 3 years. Before being posted to Washington, Vicky held a number of domestic and international prudential policy and supervisory roles at the Bank, the former UK Financial Services Authority, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the European Commission. She has been active on diversity, equity and inclusion issues throughout her career and has chaired both the Bank of England’s and the IMF Executive Board’s gender networks.

Dr. Maxine Nelson is a Senior Vice President at the GARP Risk Institute, GARP’s research and thought leadership arm, where she focusses on climate financial risk management. 

She has extensive experience in risk, capital and regulation gained from a wide-ranging variety of roles, including Global Head of Wholesale Risk Analytics and Head of Capital Planning at HSBC, significantly expanding counterparty credit risk management at the UK Financial Services Authority during the last financial crisis, leading the credit risk team at KPMG London, senior credit risk consultant at Oliver Wyman, and embedding operational risk analytics globally at National Australia Bank. Maxine has a degree in mechanical engineering and a PhD characterizing how best to apply probability theory to real world problems.

Jo Paisley is President of the GARP Risk Institute, the thought leadership arm of GARP. Set up in early 2018, the Institute works across all risk disciplines, with Jo’s focus to date on climate risk management and scenario analysis, stress testing and operational resilience.

Her career began at the Bank of England where she worked in a variety of roles across macroeconomics, statistics, supervision and risk. Her last role was as a Director of the Supervisory Risk Specialists Division within the Prudential Regulation Authority, where she was heavily involved in the design and execution of the UK’s first concurrent stress test in 2014. She left the Bank in 2015 and joined HSBC as their Global Head of Stress Testing. She has also worked as an independent stress testing consultant, advising firms on how to get the most value out of stress testing.

Erica’s book, Escape from Model Land: How Mathematical Models Can Lead Us Astray and What We Can Do About It, was published in December 2022 and was shortlisted for Best Maths Book of 2022 by Chaulkdust Magazine, a specialist magazine for mathematicians.

Erica moved into her current role in April 2023, where she investigates the appropriate use of mathematical modelling to support real-world decisions, from mathematical and statistical questions about methodologies of inference from models, to psycho-social questions about the formation of confidence and the role of expert judgement.

Erica is also a Fellow of the London Mathematical Laboratory, where she leads the research programme on Inference from Models, and is a Visiting Senior Fellow at the LSE Data Science Institute. Erica previously held a series of roles at the LSE’s Centre for the Analysis of Time Series, initially as a Senior Policy Fellow, and subsequently as Co-Director and Acting Director.

Erica holds a BA in Experimental and Theoretical Physics and a Master of Mathematics degree from Cambridge University. She completed her PhD in Physics at Imperial College London.