Climate and Energy Summit: A landscape of division and transformation lies on the horizon

Kirsten Dunlop’s career spans academia, consulting, banking, insurance, strategy, design, innovation and leadership. She is committed to shaping and placing innovation to catalyse profound systemic change and is honoured to work with Climate-KIC’s world-class network of partners to support climate innovation across Europe and beyond. Prior to roles at Second Road, KPMG and Suncorp in Australia, Dunlop worked in the UK and Italy for 15 years. In Italy, she led the Generali Group Innovation Academy for Assicurazioni Generali, pioneering proprietary thinking in the areas of strategic risk management, strategic innovation, strategic leadership development and cultural change. Her publications include a case study in ‘The Routledge Companion to Strategic Risk Management’.

In his current role at ENGIE, Luc Goossens coordinates all Research and Development activities related to energy and services. Prior to that, Goossens was nominated as Director in charge of Wind, Hydro and Geothermal generation within the Centralised Generation Metier of ENGIE. His team has ensured the assured transversal alignment of all development, construction and operational projects in these technologies over the 24 ENGIE Business units with, an installed capacity of 21 GW renewables worldwide. He was also the Department Manager for Electrabel Nuclear Power Plants projects where he led the project team on engineering & construction management of modification projects. 

Erica Hope is a Senior Associate at the European Climate Foundation, where she leads the cross-sectoral ‘2050 Task Force’ and governance programme seeking to build knowledge, political strategies and coalitions to drive the transition to a net zero emissions society by mid-century. Erica has previously worked for the energy efficiency and UK programmes of the ECF, and before that led the policy and advocacy activities of NGO network Climate Action Network Europe on energy efficiency. She was also a researcher to Green MEP Caroline Lucas, and has worked at the Institute for Public Policy Research in London.

Daniela is Director of the Climate Service Center Germany and visiting professor at Leuphana University, Faculty of Sustainability. She serves as a member of the European Commission’s Mission Board on ‘Adaptation to Climate Change including Societal Transformation’ and was one of the coordinating lead authors of the IPCC Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above preindustrial level and one of the lead authors of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report. Additionally, she serves as the Chair of the German Committee for Sustainability and she is a member of several other committees. Daniela is also Editor-in-Chief of ‘Climate Services’, a scientific journal she founded together with the Elsevier publishing house.

Prior to joining Friends of Europe, Dharmendra Kanani was director of policy at the European Foundation Centre (EFC). He was the England director at the Big Lottery Fund, the largest independent funder in the UK and fourth largest in the world. Dharmendra has held senior positions in the public and voluntary sectors and advisor to numerous ministerial policy initiatives across the UK.

Passionate about the energy market, Melanie Kenderdine served as Director of the Office of Energy Policy and Systems Analysis and Energy Counsellor to Secretary Moniz. Prior to these posts, she worked as the Executive Director and Associate Director for the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI). During her six-year tenure at MITEI, she helped raise over $500mn from industry and private donors for energy research and education. Kenderdine was the Vice President of Washington Operations for the Gas Technology Institute and also served as a political appointee in President Bill Clinton’s administration. Kenderdine has recently been appointed as Principal of the Energy Future Initative, a US not-for-profit organisation dedicated to driving innovation in energy tech, policy and business models.

Helen Mountford is an environmental economist focused on helping governments, companies and civil society address climate change. Mountford previously worked as Deputy Director of Environment for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), where she headed the work on green fiscal reform, climate change finance and economics, fossil fuel subsidy reforms, water pricing, biodiversity incentive measures, and economy-environment outlooks and modelling.

François-Régis Mouton founded GasNaturally in 2011. He is currently the Chair of GasNaturally Steering Committee and Europe’s Director of the global oil and gas industry trade association (IOGP). Previously, he held various positions in the exploration and production, gas and power branches of Total in France, Africa, Belgium and the United Kingdom. Mouton was also appointed at the World Bank Group partnership on “Global Gas Flaring Reduction”, where he launched zero flaring policies in Qatar and regional cooperation in the Gulf Of Guinea. He also served as Vice-President for Gas Advocacy of Total in Brussels. 

Mauro Petriccione worked extensively on EU trade policy before joining the Directorate-General for Climate Action, covering a wide range of activities and negotiations, from trade and standards, to defence, investment, competition and dispute settlement, as well as relations with member states and European institutions. He was the deputy director-general for trade, responsible for trade relations with Asia, Latin America and countries of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. Petriccione also served as chief negotiator for the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement and the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement.

Frank Rijsberman leads the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) in supporting a government transition to a model of economic growth that is both environmentally sustainable and socially inclusive. With over 30 years’ experience in addressing the challenges of environmental sustainability and poverty reduction with leading international organisations and philanthropic foundations, Rijsberman was appointed as the Director-General of the Institute in 2016. Prior to joining GGGI, Rijsberman served as Chief Executive Officer of the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Consortium. In this role, he led CGIAR’s transformation from 15 independent research centres towards a single integrated organisation. 

As the Chief Technical Officer at EDF Group since 2018, Bernard Salha oversees the technical operations of the company. He is also Senior Executive Vice President of EDF Group and President of EDF Research and Development. With more than 2000 researchers, EDF R&D covers all the Group’s activities, upstream in the field of generation (nuclear, thermal, hydro and renewable) and downstream in the fields of transport and distribution grids, energy management and customer relationships. Previously, after having held various senior positions in engineering units at EDF, he served as Director of the Nuclear Engineering Division. Following his experience at the French Ministry of Defence, Salha participated in China’s Nuclear Power Program (LingAo I). 

Ovais Sarmad is currently supporting the Executive Secretary in managing the operations of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat, its staff and organisational development, advising on a range of issues relating to the inter-governmental affairs and strategic planning. He previously served as Chief of Staff/Chef de Cabinet at the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Geneva where he worked in several management and policy capacities. 

An experienced professional in renewable energy support schemes, Hans van Steen currently works on providing secure, affordable and clean energy for EU citizens and businesses at the European Commission Directorate General for Energy. Prior to that, Hans served as Head of Unit with responsibilities for international energy relations and enlargement. In that capacity he was in charge of the implementation of the actions set out under the external dimension of the Energy Union Strategy.

In his current role, the responsibilities of Marco Waas include circular and bio-based economy, Industry 4.0, electrification and Open innovation. Waas is also Chairman of the Executive Board of the Institute of Sustainable Process Technology, Chairman of the Innovation Policy Committee of the Dutch Chemical Industry Association and non-executive Board member of the Icos III collaborative venture fund. Before joining Nouryon, he held the position of Dean at the Delft University of Technology where he was responsible for the Faculty of Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering. He previously held several management positions at Unilever.

Stephanie Brancaforte currently leads the world’s largest petition and activism platform, Change.org, and runs Fund Our Future, which focuses on stopping financial flows to climate-destructive projects and constructing highly consultative ‘green new deal’ initiatives.

Previously, she led Greenpeace International’s climate and energy program, overseeing the organisation’s efforts to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. She has supported negotiations, humanitarian efforts and activist movements in the Middle East for Avaaz, the Assistance Coordination Unit of the Syrian Opposition, and at CIVICUS.

She also served as a United States diplomat based in Berlin for several years, a researcher at Amnesty International in the Great Lakes region, an investigator for the International Criminal Court, an international law adviser for the Iraqi High Tribunal in Baghdad, and taught graduate school courses at George Washington University.