Kick off the day with a welcome tea or coffee, offering a chance settle in and network with fellow attendees ahead of the day’s program.

Decision-makers face a new era of risk reduction and assessments. Regardless
of the sector, there is an increasingly clear need for effective tools and
resources to build better resilience.

This session offers an exclusive preview of the
Resilience Science Must-Knows, a groundbreaking synthesis of
science-based insights designed to guide real-world decisions. Officially set
to launch at COP30 in Brazil, this is a unique chance to
engage early with these Must-Knows and shape how they’re applied.

What to expect

This isn’t simply a call for more ambition or a showcase of best practices.
Instead, the session will prioritise dynamic discussions between scientific
experts and real economy leaders.

It will be further brought to life with participation of the
Hot Poets, who will build
from the conversations to seed their performance at the end of the session.

Together, we’ll explore:

• How to shift from scattered success stories to
  cross-sector strategies
• What resilience science tells us about
  navigating interconnected risks
• Practical ways to apply these insights to diverse sectors,
  scales, and contexts

Speakers

• 
  Henry Bonsu (Moderator)
  Journalist and Broadcaster
  Henry Bonsu is a British African broadcaster who has made waves at home
  and abroad. An Oxford languages graduate, he was a producer on Radio 4’s
  Today, Britain’s biggest current affairs programme. He has also presented
  shows on satellite TV channels Vox Africa, BET International and Press TV
  – and been an analyst on Sky News, Al Jazeera and Arise News.
• 
  Jesper Hornberg
  CEO, Global Resilience Partnership
  Jesper is the Chief Executive Officer at the Global Resilience
  Partnership. For the past ten years he has led GRP’s Innovation and
  Scaling efforts, as well as the GRP Incubator. His focus is on change
  management and creative disruption. He manages and coordinates the GRP
  team, and provides overall oversight and leadership for GRP.
• 
  Chris Bradshaw
  CSO, Bentley Systems
  Chris Bradshaw is chief sustainability officer at Bentley Systems, bringing together Bentley’s sustainability and education initiatives with the objective of empowering Bentley’s users to achieve sustainable development goals, while ensuring the next generation of engineers has the tools and knowledge to succeed.
• 
  Peter Bentley
  Adaptation and Resilience, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
  Peter Bentley is the Head of the Adaptation and Resilience team at the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). He previously led on disaster risk financing and insurance for the FCDO and helped set up the Centre for Disaster Protection, which aims to find better ways to stop disasters devastating lives and economies, by supporting countries to better manage disaster risk. Prior to this he worked in humanitarian response for Save the Children, working across East Africa in South Sudan, Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia on first phase and chronic emergencies.
• 
  Cibele Queiroz
  Knowledge Director, Global Resilience Partnership & Theme Leader, Stockholm Resilience Centre
  Cibele leads GRPs work to advance the understanding and knowledge about resilience. Her work has a main focus on resilience of food systems and local livelihoods in food production landscapes. Her work has also a strong emphasis on the management of ecosystem services and biodiversity under social-environmental change.
• 
  Savina Carluccio
  Executive Director, International Coalition for Sustainable Infrastructure (ICSI)
  Savina is the Executive Director of the International Coalition for Sustainable Infrastructure (ICSI) and a fervent advocate of the role of civil engineers in tackling our society’s biggest challenges.
  She is an experienced Civil Engineer and infrastructure practitioner with almost two decades of experience advising government, infrastructure owners and operators, multi-lateral development banks and NGOs to develop and implement inclusive, sustainable and resilient infrastructure that is fit for the future.
• 
  Sheela Patel
  Founder and Director, Society for Promotion of Area Resource Centres
  (SPARC)
  Sheela Patel is the director of the Society for the Promotion of Area
  Resource Centres (SPARC) that has worked in the Alliance with Mahila Milan
  and the National Slum Dwellers Federation (and Jockin) since 1986. She is
  one of the founders of SDI and is now a member of the Global Commission on
  Adaptation.
• 
  Amy Barnes
  Head of Climate and Sustainability Strategy, Marsh McLennan
  Amy Barnes is responsible for leading Marsh’s global strategy on the
  development of climate and sustainability-related initiatives for clients,
  particularly in relation to the impact of a changing physical risk
  landscape, improving access to capital for green initiatives, and a more
  thorough understanding of climate-related project risk. She also
  participates in Marsh McLennan’s Sustainability and Climate Change
  program, which focuses on developing sustainability and climate change
  services.
• 
  Amy Shepherd
  COO, Think-Film Impact Production
  Amy Shepherd is COO at Think-Film Impact Production, Europe’s leading impact media company operating at the cutting-edge intersection of art and social change. An experienced policy strategist she has an extensive professional background in international law, politics and social justice advocacy.
• 
  Chris Redmond
  Poet & Artistic Director, Hot Poets
  Chris Redmond is a writer, musician and multi-artform facilitator.
  Co-Artistic Director of Hot Poets, founder of Tongue Fu, his career spans
  thirty years, with collaborators including Kae Tempest, Lemn Sissay,
  Irvine Welsh and Hollie McNish. Chris contributes to the UNFCCC’s
  Resilience Frontiers and facilitates processes in creativity, performance
  and leadership.
• 
  Liv Torc
  Poet & Artistic Director, Hot Poets
  Liv Torc is a poet, artist and ideas weaver who plunders the vast caverns
  and dormant volcanoes of the human and planetary condition. Co-Artistic
  Director of Hot Poets and UN Consultant, Liv was chosen by the UN, to be
  one of 50 international thought leaders, taking part in Adaptation week in
  Botswana. She was invited back in 2023 to South Korea, as lead facilitator
  for the UNFCCC’s Resilience Frontiers.

Coffee break

Climate finance still largely flows through top-down, inflexible channels. Consequently, the communities most exposed and least equipped to adapt to climate change remain locked out due to high transaction costs, perceived risk, and lack of tailored financial instruments.

This session provides a platform to collaboratively translate the Resilience Science Must-Knows into actionable guidance. Participants will directly feed the outcomes and recommendations into a globally recognised guide that reflects the realities of risk, agency, and resilience on the ground.

What to expect

This session builds on the months of scientific review, multi-stakeholder consultations, and targeted validations that informed the Resilience Science Must-Knows and will result in a Road to Action that translates these insights into actionable guidance.

The Road to Action is set to launch at COP30, and participants will help directly feed outcomes into globally recognised recommendations set to influence real economy strategies.

Together, we’ll explore:

• Effective ways to ground the recommendations in locally informed perspectives
• Practical ways to ensure the Must-Knows are co-developed with, and for, decision-makers and stakeholders on the ground
• How these Must-Knows can align with and inform COP30 priorities

Speakers

• 
  Daniel Stander (Moderator)
  Senior Advisor, UNDP
  Daniel is special advisor to the United Nations on sustainable finance. He is also Deputy Chair of the Resilient Cities Network and has been a senior fellow at The Atlantic Council.
• 
  Luca Torre
  Co-Founder & Co-CEO, GAWA Capital
  Luca has spent most of his career investing in and advising microfinance and financial institutions. Prior to founding GAWA, he worked at Credit Suisse Investment Banking in New York advising many microfinance institutions in accessing capital markets, including Banco Compartamos’ IPO. Luca gained on-the-field operating experience working for Annapurna, an Indian MFI. Luca began his career at BCG and holds an MBA from Kellogg.
• 
  Jorge Gastelumendi
  Senior Director, Atlantic Council Climate Resilience Center
  Jorge Gastelumendi is the senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Climate Resilience Center (formerly Arsht-Rock). In this role, he leads the center, overseeing the center’s three strategic pillars: extreme heat resilience, adaptation policy and finance, and climate games and technology. As a recognized climate and environmental policy and finance leader, Gastelumendi brings over twenty-five years of climate and policy experience.
• 
  Ariana Keyman
  Director of Partnership, GiveDirectly
  Prior to joining GiveDirectly, Ariana was a Director at the Busara Center for Behavioral Economics in Kenya, where she led growth through expanding the organization’s funder base, driving strategic direction, and leading international expansion across 10 countries. She has also consulted for several international development organizations, including for Building Markets and the MIT GOV/LAB, on program management and evaluation.
• 
  Sam Greene
  Plan Adapt
  Sam is a PlanAdapt Fellow based in London, United KIngdom. Sam has over ten years of experience supporting action research on climate governance, finance and local level resilience. This has included supporting the establishment of devolved finance delivery mechanisms in Tanzania and Kenya that channel climate funds at scale towards resilience building local investments, identified by local communities.
• 
  Shehnaaz Moosa
  SouthSouthNorth
  Shehnaaz is a Director at SouthSouthNorth, the CEO of the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) programme and the SSN Project Director and Steering Committee member of the Voices for Just Climate Action (VCA) program.
• 
  Patricia McCall
  Chief Strategy Officer, Winrock International
  Patricia has over 25 years of international private sector and non-profit experience in investment management, philanthropy, family office advisory, impact investing and supporting sustainable economic development. She now leads a team that includes Winrock’s Donor Engagement, Net Zero Advisory Group, Private Sector and Strategy activities. She has portfolio investment experience, developed complex private-public partnerships, led policy institutes and designed investments and initiatives to maximize both return and impact. She has worked in the US, Middle East and UK.
• 
  Madeleine Ronquest
  Head of Environmental, Nature Risk, Climate Change, FirstRand Limited
  Madeleine Ronquest is the Head of Environmental, Nature and Climate Risk Management in the FirstRand Group and her portfolio includes environmental risk assessment and – management, carbon management, sustainable finance, positive impact banking, climate change, nature and biodiversity assessment, transition planning, and standards implementation, disclosure. She has been with the Group for more than 22 years and will be leaving the group in October 2025 due to employment contract fulfillment.
• 
  Cibele Queiroz
  Knowledge Director, Global Resilience Partnership & Theme Leader, Stockholm Resilience Centre
  Cibele leads GRPs work to advance the understanding and knowledge about resilience. Her work has a main focus on resilience of food systems and local livelihoods in food production landscapes. Her work has also a strong emphasis on the management of ecosystem services and biodiversity under social-environmental change.
• 
  Chris Redmond
  Poet & Artistic Director, Hot Poets
  Chris Redmond is a writer, musician and multi-artform facilitator. Co-Artistic Director of Hot Poets, founder of Tongue Fu, his career spans thirty years, with collaborators including Kae Tempest, Lemn Sissay, Irvine Welsh and Hollie McNish. Chris contributes to the UNFCCC’s Resilience Frontiers and facilitates processes in creativity, performance and leadership.
• 
  Liv Torc
  Poet & Artistic Director, Hot Poets
  Liv Torc is a poet, artist and ideas weaver who plunders the vast caverns and dormant volcanoes of the human and planetary condition. Co-Artistic Director of Hot Poets and UN Consultant, Liv was chosen by the UN, to be one of 50 international thought leaders, taking part in Adaptation week in Botswana. She was invited back in 2023 to South Korea, as lead facilitator for the UNFCCC’s Resilience Frontiers.

Enjoy a networking lunch where attendees can connect, exchange ideas, and continue conversations sparked during the morning sessions.

In less than five years, the world will reach the deadline set for significant
emission reductions outlined in the Paris Agreement. Accelerating locally-led
adaptation and resilience has never been more urgent. However, despite
progress, many communities still lack access to climate risk data, tested
adaptation solutions, and the resources to implement them.

The Resilient Planet Initiative (RPI) responds to this gap by
offering an open-access platform that connects frontline communities,
policymakers, and innovators with localised climate risk information and
opportunities to collaborate.

What to expect

Participants will experience the public launch of the Resilient Planet
Initiative! Unlike typical top-down tech platforms, the Resilient Planet
Initiative (RPI) was co-designed with grassroots actors and tested in
real-world contexts to ensure relevance and usability.

Participants will learn:

• How technology can democratise resilience by making information and
  solutions discoverable, actionable, and fundable by and for frontline
  communities

• How the links between climate finance and resilience science can drive
  impact

Speakers

• 
  David Howlett
  Senior Advisor & Loss & Damage Lead, Climate Champions Team
  David Howlett is a Senior Adviser in the Climate Champions Teams and
  helped set up the global Race to Resilience Campaign. Before this he was
  Head of Policy at the Global Resilience Partnership on secondment from the
  UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO). At FCDO’s
  predecessor, DFID, he worked on policy and research on climate change and
  agriculture. He has over thirty-five years’ experience in development in
  Africa, Asia and the Pacific with an academic background in chemistry and
  soil science.
• 
  Sheela Patel
  Founder and Director, SPARC, Global Amnbassador for Race to Resilience
  Sheela Patel is the director of the Society for the Promotion of Area
  Resource Centres (SPARC) that has worked in the Alliance with Mahila Milan
  and the National Slum Dwellers Federation (and Jockin) since 1986. She is
  one of the founders of SDI and is now a member of the Global Commission on
  Adaptation.
• 
  Namrata Ginoya
  Strategic Policy Lead, Global Resilience Partnership
  Namrata Ginoya works on policy planning and strategy within GRP including
  engagement with High Level Champions on Race to Resilience. She has been
  involved in research and implementation of adaptation projects with a
  focus on food, water, infrastructure and energy, in partnership with
  various national and sub-national governments, NGOs, private sector and
  local communities.
• 
  Joe Muturi
  President, Slum Dwellers International
  Joseph Muturi is a national community leader of Muungano wa Wanavijiji,
  the Kenyan Slum Dweller Federation. Since joining the Federation in 1998,
  Joseph has played a central role in negotiating and implementing projects
  to strengthen the security of tenure and improved living conditions for
  urban poor communities in Kenya.
• 
  Mark Harvey
  CEO, Resurgence
  Mark Harvey is the Founder and CEO of Resurgence, a global social
  enterprise that supports urban climate risk reduction and resilience.
  Resurgence clients and partners include the World Bank, UNDRR, the Met
  Office, FCDO, the Red Cross Climate Centre and Climate KIC. He has over 30
  years experience of international climate, environment and humanitarian
  partnerships.
• 
  Suranjana Gupta
  Senior Advisor, Huairou Commission
  Suranjana Gupta is Huairou Commission’s Senior Advisor, Community
  Resilience based in India. She has been working for twenty years at the
  intersection of women’s empowerment and disaster and climate resilience.
  Over the years she has worked with the Secretariat and membership in Asia,
  Africa and LAC to bridge grassroots women’s practice to policy through
  strategic planning, policy advocacy, research and documentation and
  facilitation of peer exchanges and partnership building.
• 
  Roberto Spacey Martin
  Alignment Lead, Resilient Planet Finance Lab
  Roberto is the alignment lead at the Resilient Planet Finance Lab. He leads the group’s work on climate change adaptation taxonomies and corporate assessment frameworks. He has led projects analysing different adaptation taxonomies, tracking nature-positive fiscal spending in response to COVID-19 and assessing firm adaptation alignment through AI. He has also provided exposure analyses of nature-related transition risks.
• 
  Sukaina Bharwani
  Senior Research Fellow and weADAPT Director, SEI
  Sukaina Bharwani is an interdisciplinary senior researcher with a
  background in both social anthropology and computer science. Sukaina
  co-led the
  SEI Climate Services initiative
  and several work streams in large European and international projects. She
  also serves as Director of the
  weADAPT global
  platform and network for climate change adaptation. In that role she
  coordinates the strategic and technical development of weADAPT.
• 
  Marco Billi
  Professor in Climate Governance, Risk and Resilience, Uninversidad de
  Chile
  Marco Billi currently works as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Center for
  Climate and Resilience Research (Chile). His main research interests
  include Governance, Climate Change, Risk and Resilience, Sustainability
  semantics, water security, energy poverty, Social Systems Theory, mixed
  methods research, Conceptual History, Political Theory.

This invite-only Fireside Chat with Dan Ioschpe, COP30 High Level Champion aims to build alignment on the opportunities and barriers to scale private investment in adaptation. If you are a senior business leader who would like to be considered for an invitation, please reach out to Julia Cadaval Martins at jmartins@globalresiliencepartnership.org (detailing your name, organisation, and title). As spaces are limited, submission of this email does
not guarantee attendance.

Coffee break

Climate change is driving the costs of instability for both businesses and society.

This gives the private sector a unique opportunity to take a leadership role in climate action. A resilient economy is not just a necessity; it’s also a significant business opportunity.

The Global Resilience Partnership (GRP), World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES), BCG, the Race to Resilience, and UN High Level Climate Champions will explore the role of private sector investment in climate adaptation and resilience.

What to expect

This panel discussion brings private sector leaders to the stage to consider strategic opportunities that can reframe resilience as a shared investment priority and a competitive advantage.

Speakers

• 
  Marcia Toledo (Moderator)
  Director of Adaptation and Resilience, UN Climate Change High-Level Champions
  Marcia Toledo leads the Adaptation and Resilience team, overseeing the integrated implementation of the Race to Resilience campaign and the Sharm el-Sheikh Adaptation Agenda—the two key adaptation mobilization mechanisms of the UN Climate High-Level Champions under the Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action.
• 
  Jesper Hornberg
  CEO, Global Resilience Partnership
  Jesper is the Chief Executive Officer at the Global Resilience Partnership. For the past ten years he has led GRP’s Innovation and Scaling efforts, as well as the GRP Incubator. His focus is on change management and creative disruption. He manages and coordinates the GRP team, and provides overall oversight and leadership for GRP.
• 
  Michael Joseph
  Chairman, Pula
  Michael Joseph is the Chairman of Pula, bringing decades of leadership experience in telecommunications, finance, and large-scale innovation across Africa. As Chairman of Pula, Michael brings strategic oversight and deep industry insight to guide the organization in expanding agricultural insurance and digital solutions across Africa and Asia. His commitment to innovation, inclusion, and impact aligns with Pula’s mission to make resilience accessible to millions of smallholder farmers.
• 
  Namita Vikas
  Founder and Managing Director, AuctusESG
  Namita Vikas is a senior business leader with 30 years of diverse global experience in climate strategy and sustainability across sectors including banking, technology and FMCG, with a particular focus on sustainable, climate and green finance, climate action, ESG & Climate Risk Management.
• 
  Gwendolyn Yu
  Head of Emerging Sustainability Issues, JP Morgan Chase
  Gwen Yu is Head of Emerging Sustainability Issues at JPMorganChase, where she coordinates across the Firm to provide market and policy intelligence on key issues, including nature and biodiversity, climate adaptation and resilience and other sustainability topics. Gwen was previously Head of Nature and Biodiversity and helped set the Firm’s global approach to nature and biodiversity finance.
• 
  Rodrigo Fernandes
  Sustainability Director, Bentley Systems
  Rodrigo Fernandes is Director, Sustainability in Bentley Systems, leading the implementation of the company’s sustainability business strategy and initiatives. Rodrigo’s charter is to empower sustainable development goals through Bentley software and services, evangelize Bentley’s handprint, and advocate for a sustainability culture.
• 
  Anthony Hobley
  Deputy Chair Climate Risk & Resilience, Howden
  Anthony is a well-known global leader in the fields of climate finance, law, international policy development, philanthropy and sustainability where he has worked since 1990. In additional to his role at Howden he is currently the Senior Strategic Advisor at the Inevitable Policy Response (IPR), Adjunct Professor at the Singapore Institute for Technology, Chair of the Climate Action Advisory Board, Co-Chair of the Carbon Tracker Advisory Board, Member of the Climate Bonds Advisory Board and member of the Editorial Board of the journal Carbon & Climate Law Review (CCLR).
• 
  Brooke Tvermoes, PhD, DABT
  Director, Environmental, Energy & Chemical Management Programs, IBM Chief Sustainability Office
  Dr. Brooke Tvermoes is a board-certified toxicologist and serves as Director within IBM’s Chief Sustainability Office where she leads a global team that is responsible for setting the strategic direction and driving the performance of IBM’s environmental programs and goals in the areas of energy, climate, environment and supply chain. Her focus is to drive IBM’s sustainability strategy by fostering innovative ecosystems that unite industry partners, researchers, and IBM’s global operations.
• 
  Charmian Caines
  MD and Senior Partner, Boston Consulting Group
  Charmian Caines is the global topic lead for climate adaptation and resilience at BCG. She leads work supporting national, state, and local governments and development finance institutions in navigating the challenges of climate change and preparing robust action plans with localized solutions. She has completed a range of projects across West and sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and Oceania, leveraging BCG’s analytics-driven end-to-end approach to build resilience in cities and countries.

Join us for the post-event reception to unwind, reflect on the day’s discussions, and continue networking in a relaxed setting with refreshments.