Energy and Climate Summit 2026

Simonetta Cheli is the Director of Earth Observation Programmes at the European Space Agency (ESA) and Head of the ESA-ESRIN establishment in Frascati, Rome. She has worked at ESA for over three decades, both at ESA Headquarters in Paris and at ESRIN. She is a member of the ESA management team and the ESA Executive Board and is accountable for formulating the ESA strategy for the Earth Observation (EO) sector, managing the development of EO satellites, in-orbit Mission operations, ground segment data distribution and archiving, science applications and projects. She actively engages with worldwide stakeholders including space agencies, industry, scientific communities, satellite operators, public/private entities, and international partners, managing major partnership programmes like Copernicus and meteorological programmes with the European Commission and EUMETSAT. Additionally, serving as the representative of ESA in Italy and Head of the ESA ESRIN establishment, Simonetta Cheli represents ESA in numerous international fora and acts as a spokesperson with media in worldwide conferences.

Beatriz Corredor Sierra currently serves as Chairwoman of Redeia. A legal expert and senior public official, Corredor Sierra has held prominent roles in Spanish public administration, including minister of Housing, secretary of State for Housing and Urban Projects, and president of the Board of Directors of the Public Land Entity (SEPES). She is a member of the EIB Group Women Climate Leaders Network. She has also served as a Madrid City councillor and member of the Congress of Deputies. Corredor Sierra is Vice-President of the Board of Trustees of the Reina Sofia Museum and advises several organisations promoting gender equality and sustainability. She is active in academia and has received multiple national distinctions for her public service.

Sandrine Dixson-Declève served as Co-President of the Club of Rome from 2018-2024 and now acts as its Honorary President while leading as the Executive Chair of Earth4All and the Brussels based Systems Transformation Hub, both promoting economic, financial and governance systems change for a sustainable futureenhancing well-being. She sits on the Climate Governance Commission and the newly formed WHO Pan European Climate & Health Commission. She has advised governments, businesses, and international organizations, chaired the European Commission’s Expert Group on Economic and Societal Impact of Research & Innovation (ESIR), and serves or has served on Boards and advisory boards of Climate KIC, Laudes Foundation, Imperial College London, UCL, BMW, UCB and EDP. A TED speaker and author, she co-wrote Earth for All: A Survival Guide for Humanity and advocates for bold climate action, economic reform, and social equity to address global challenges. Sandrine currently teaches at the College of Europe.

Jan Dusík has spent his entire career in the environmental and climate policy and law. He worked at the Ministry of Environment of the Czech Republic for 12 years, including as the Minister of Environment. In 2011, Dusík became the Deputy Regional Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and was subsequently appointed as UNEP’s Regional Director for Europe, followed by serving as UNEP’s Principal Adviser on Strategic Engagement for the Arctic and Antarctic. In 2020, he joined the WWF Global Arctic Programme, leading the work on Arctic Sustainable Development and Governance. In 2022-2024, he held the position of the Czech Government Envoy for International Climate Negotiations. In September 2024, he was appointed Deputy Director-General in DG Climate Action of the European Commission. 

Frank Elderson is a member of the Executive Board and of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank. He is Vice-Chair of the ECB’s Supervisory Board and oversees the ECB’s Legal Services. From 2020 to 2025 he co-chaired the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Risks of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. Elderson previously served as Executive Director of De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB). At DNB he held several senior positions before joining its Governing Board in 2011. Before joining DNB in 1999, Elderson worked as a lawyer specialising in EU competition law. Throughout his career, Frank Elderson has stressed the importance of climate and environment related considerations for the financial sector and for supervisors and central banks. He founded and chaired the Dutch Platform for Sustainable Finance from 2016 to 2020 and from 2018 to 2022 he served as the first Chair of the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System (NGFS), a network he helped creating and expanding. Elderson graduated in Dutch law at the University of Amsterdam in 1994 and obtained an LL.M. Degree at Columbia Law School, New York, in 1995. He also studied various courses at the University of Zaragoza, Spain.

Connie Hedegaard holds several leading positions in support of a low-carbon and green economy. She was appointed Lead of the Mission on ‘Adaptation to Climate Change including Societal Transformation’ for Horizon Europe and also chairs the Board of the KR Foundation, a Danish climate and sustainability foundation. Hedegaard was also the European commissioner for climate action, in which role she led the negotiations for the adoption of the 2030 Climate and Energy Framework and the 2050 Roadmap for moving towards a low-carbon economy, whilst also representing the EU in international climate negotiations.

Dharmendra Kanani is Director of Policy & Programmes and Chief Spokesperson at Friends of Europe. Prior to joining Friends of Europe, Dharmendra 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.

Aris leads Google’s energy strategy, infrastructure development and commercial execution across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. His team secures the power, grid access and clean capacity behind one of the fastest-growing data centre footprints in the world, to efficiently deliver affordable clean power. He joined Google in 2026 to direct the EMEA Energy & Infrastructure portfolio in support of the company’s goal of operating on 24/7 carbon-free energy by 2030. Aris brings more than twenty years at the centre of the energy transition as adviser, investor and operator. He has founded and invested in clean energy development businesses in the US and Europe, and has sat on the boards and investment committees of infrastructure funds shaping the deployment and financing of energy infrastructure assets. Earlier, he held senior roles at Guidehouse (formerly Navigant), FTI Consulting and PA Consulting, advising utilities, investors, developers and OEMs on strategy, power contracting, operational restructuring and market entry across Europe, the US and APAC.

Cillian Lohan is a leader in the field of the Circular Economy. He was the inaugural Chair of the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform which he helped to establish. He is an experienced delegate at United Nations initiatives such as the Climate COP negotiations, and the High Level Political Forum on the Sustainable Development Goals. As CEO of Green Economy Foundation, Cillian has overseen ambitious projects including the planting of over 4 million trees in Ireland, and the establishment of a Wildlife Reserve in Tobago. Appointed through the Irish Environmental Pillar, he has been an active member of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) since 2015, and has been rapporteur for 17 opinions. He was EESC vice-president in charge of communication from 2020 to 2023. In October 2025, he was elected to the office of president of the EESC Civil Society Organisations’ Group.

Antonio Lopez-Nicolas is a senior official at the European Commission working on energy policy. He currently leads the Chief Economist team in the Directorate-General for Energy, where he provides economic, financial, and modelling expertise to support the design and implementation of European energy policy. In previous roles at the Commission, he coordinated the preparation of the Action Plan for Affordable Energy, adopted alongside the Clean Industrial Deal, and led interinstitutional negotiations on the Renewable Energy Directive. He has also steered several flagship initiatives, including the Wind Power Package and the Energy System Integration and Hydrogen Strategies. Before joining the European Commission, Lopez-Nicolas was Head of the Market Unit at the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E), where he oversaw the development of European network codes, market design, and transparency initiatives.

Pierfrancesco Maran is a Member of the European Parliament for the Socialists and Democrats Group, elected in 2024 in the North-West Italy constituency. Maran currently chairs the European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Climate and Food Safety (ENVI) and serves on the IMCO and EMPL committees. Maran began his political career as a Local District Councillor before joining Milan City Council in 2006. In 2011, Maran became the youngest councillor in Mayor Giuliano Pisapia’s administration, overseeing mobility, the environment, public water, energy and the metro. Reappointed by Mayor Beppe Sala in 2016, Maran took responsibility for urban planning, green spaces and agriculture. In 2021, Maran received more votes than any other municipal candidate in Italy and began a third consecutive term as councillor, with responsibility for housing and neighbourhood policy. In 2022, Maran published Visible Cities: Where the Nation’s Change Begins, an analysis of the transformation of major European cities, later adapted for the stage. Maran is married and has two children, Lorenzo and Viola.

Raluca is the Director, EU Advocacy & General Delegate – International Road Transport Union (IRU), where she leads the Brussels based team and is in charge of advocacy for the entire commercial transport by road, including mobility of people and goods. Regarding people mobility, this means advocating for bus, coach and on demand last mile mobility, such as taxi. Regarding goods mobility, this includes all road freight transport and logistics matters as well as their multi-modal connectivity and drive to digitalisation. Prior to joining IRU, for over 10 years Raluca was a competition and regulatory lawyer in Norton Rose Fulbright’s team in Brussels, where she advised on a broad range of competition areas, such as merger control, investigations, abuse of dominance, horizontal and vertical agreements and State aid law. On the regulatory side, her focus has been transport regulation and market access.

Darragh O’Brien T.D. was appointed Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment and Minister for Transport in January 2025. He previously served as Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage (2020-2025). He is an elected TD for the constituency of Dublin Fingal East. Prior to his election to the 30th Dáil in 2007, he worked mainly in Financial Services and was elected to Fingal County Council in 2004. He was elected to Seanad Éireann in 2011.

He has held various positions within the Oireachtas including Vice-Chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee, Member of the Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Law Reform, Leader of Fianna Fáil in the Seanad, Opposition Frontbench Spokesperson on Dublin, Foreign Affairs and Housing.

Teresa Ribera is the Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for a Clean, Just and Competitive Transition. She previously served as Vice President of the Government of Spain and Minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge as well as Member of Spanish Parliament. Prior to that, she was Director of the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI) from 2014 to 2018, enabling the Institute to play a key role in the negotiation of the Paris Climate Agreement. From 2008 to 2011, she served as the Spanish Secretary of State for Climate Change and Biodiversity. A public official from the Senior Corps of State Civil Administrators, she has also taught public law at the Autonomous University of Madrid. She is member of the Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium since 2021.

Bart Sap was appointed Chief Executive Officer in May 2024, after serving as Executive Vice-President Catalysis from 2021 to 2024 and Senior Vice-President for Cobalt & Specialty Materials and Supply from 2020 to 2021. He joined Umicore in 2004 as controller for Cobalt & Specialty Materials and occupied several management functions in Korea and Belgium covering finance, supply and refining of battery raw materials, business development and operations. Bart holds a Master’s Degree in Commercial Science from Vlekho in Brussels, Belgium, with majors in Accountancy and Taxation.

As Managing Director of the Jacques Delors Friends of Europe Foundation, Ulrike is responsible for developing an integrated approach across the work of the Jacques Delors Institutes and Friends of Europe. She supports the implementation and operationalisation of the Foundation’s strategy, strengthening advocacy, citizen engagement, and collective impact across multiple European capitals. Ulrike comes from the private sector, most recently serving as Chief Sustainability Officer at Henkel AG, where she led a team of 50, reporting to the Executive Management Team and shaping strategy, business integration, data systems and reporting. Her previous roles include international positions at The Coca-Cola Company and RWE Thames Water across various European locations. She also brings extensive experience in European and global policy, having engaged on topics such as public-private partnerships, climate and energy transition, circular economy, and human rights. Ulrike is a German national and is based in Brussels.

Leena Ylä-Mononen has worked with national, European and international environmental policy and administration for over 30 years. Before joining the EEA, Ylä-Mononen was director general at the Finnish Ministry of the Environment, where she was in charge of the Ministry’s Climate and Environmental Protection Department, dealing with environmental policy issues and EU files. Prior to joining the Ministry Ylä-Mononen worked in management positions at the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) in Helsinki, first as a head of unit and then as one of the directors. She also worked at the European Commission, Directorate-General for Environment, on policy files related to chemicals, pesticides and multilateral environmental agreements related to chemicals.