Decision-Useful Climate Scenarios: Models, Meaning, and Strategic Impact

Isma’eel Akoon is Vice President, heading up Sustainability Risk in EMEA at SMBC Group, based in London. With more than a decade of senior experience in risk management and sustainability across EMEA, he specialises in integration of Sustainability risk into core banking frameworks and financial strategies. He has led SMBC’s efforts to align lending, underwriting, products and enterprise risk management with evolving UK and EU supervisory expectations; including climate-risk governance, transition finance standard and sustainability regulation. In his current role, Isma’eel helps the firm navigate the dual challenge of accelerating sustainability transition and regulatory expectations, while supporting clients across sectors in their decarbonisation and digital transformation journey.

Claire has worked at Barclays for 24 years, across a range of roles largely in Risk (Credit, Environmental, Climate, Reputation, across Corporate Bank, Barclays UK, Group), Public Policy & Communications. She is currently the Risk Chief of Staff and Head of Climate Risk in Barclays UK.

She led the establishment of climate as a principal risk, including the Climate Risk Framework, risk identification and management processes, including ICAAP and external disclosures. Claire identified climate change as a driver of risk, following 12 years of environmental risk management in investment banking, including holding leading roles at the Equator Principles, United Nations Environment and Human Rights programmes and winning a FT Sustainable Finance award.

Willemijn Verdegaal is a global leader in integrating climate and sustainability risks into investment decision-making and financial regulation. She is the Co-CEO and Chief Product Officer of Trex, a spin-out from the University of Exeter, pioneering science-based, non-linear, climate-informed risk management tools for the investment community.

With over 15 years of experience across finance, policy, and climate science, Willemijn has advised boards of major pension funds, insurers, banks, sovereign wealth funds, regulators, and governments worldwide. She previously co-led Climate & ESG Solutions at Ortec Finance, integrating climate scenarios into strategic investment models, and led climate finance negotiations for the Dutch government at the UNFCCC.

A seasoned speaker and entrepreneur, Willemijn is passionate about driving systemic change and helping investors navigate the complexities of the energy transition and climate tipping points.

Danae Kyriakopoulou is the Co-Head of the Bank of England’s Climate Hub, working on the intersections of climate change, the macroeconomy and the financial system. In that capacity she also represents the Bank in international groups of the G20, G7 and NGFS. She was previously Distinguished Policy Fellow at the London School of Economics, working with Lord Nicholas Stern in leading policy work for the G7, G20, COP and Coalition of Finance Ministers of Climate Action, and in advising NatWest Group on their climate and sustainability strategy. Prior to that she served as Chief Economist and Director of Research of the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum where she also set up and chaired the Sustainable Policy Institute. She was selected as a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum in 2022. 

Jo Paisley’s career began at the Bank of England where she worked in various economist roles, ran the Statistics Division and spent the last part of her career in Supervision. Her last role was as a Director of the Supervisory Risk Specialist Division within the Prudential Regulation Authority. This area provided deep technical risk expertise to front line supervisors across all risk disciplines, covering banking and insurance. She was also 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, where she was responsible for ensuring that they met all their regulatory stress testing requirements around the world. She has also worked as an independent stress testing consultant, advising firms on how to get the most value out of stress testing. Jo studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Magdalen College, Oxford, before completing her MPhil in Economics at Nuffield College, Oxford.