David Miller is the Director of International Diplomacy for C40 Cities. Mr. Miller was Mayor of Toronto from 2003 to 2010, and served as Chair of C40 Cities from 2008 until 2010. Under his leadership, Toronto became widely admired internationally for its environmental leadership, economic strength and social integration. 

He is a leading advocate for the creation of sustainable urban economies, and a strong and forceful champion for the next generation of jobs through sustainability. Mr. Miller has held a variety of public and private positions and served as Future of Cities Global Fellow at Polytechnic Institute of New York University from 2011 to 2014, was an Adjunct Professor at York University in Toronto and has an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Waterloo in Environmental Studies. 

Prior to joining the C40, Mr. Miller served as the President and CEO of World Wildlife Fund-Canada, Canada’s foremost conservation organization.David Miller is a Harvard trained economist and professionally a lawyer. He and his wife, lawyer Jill Arthur, are the parents of two children.

Expertise: Climate policy, transportation, clean energy

Credentials: MA in philosophy from McGill University and a certificate in renewable energy from the University of Toronto; Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2013); former executive director, Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment

Passions: Urban nature, finding wild animals moving through the city.

Bella Tonkonogy is Associate Director, Climate Finance at Climate Policy Initiative, an analysis and advisory non-profit organization working at the nexus of finance and policy for climate change. She leads the U.S.-based team at CPI, developing strategy for and overseeing research and initiatives. She is the Associate Director for the Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance, for which CPI serves as Secretariat, and also supports the development of innovative climate finance instruments, including for cities, through the Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance. Bella previously oversaw energy and environment investments in emerging markets at the U.S. Department of the Treasury and was a climate economist at the U.S. EPA and OECD. She holds an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management, an MSc from Imperial College London, and a B.A. from the University of California-Berkeley.

Presently the Director General of Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA). He is a medical doctor with Masters in Public Health (MPH) and MBBS.

His areas of interest and expertise include Decentralisation and local governance, Participatory planning, monitoring and evaluation, Climate change and development, Capacity development and Institution development and Knowledge management for development.

Dr. Elamon was one of the core team members of the People’s Plan Campaign in Kerala when it was launched in 1996. Later he served as the Chief Programme Coordinator of SDC-CapDecK Programme (Capacity Development for Decentralisation in Kerala) at Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). Subsequently he became the Moderator of Decentralization Community of UN Solution Exchange of UN Country Team in India – community managed by UNDP and held the additional charge of Maternal and Child Health Community. He served Intercooperation Social Development India as its Chief Executive Officer and as Senior Advisor Local Governance in the Governance, Decentralisation and Peace Team (G&P) of Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation. Later, he was a Core team member and Technical Advisor for the South Asia Climate Proofing and Growth Development (CPGD) – Climate Change Innovation Programme (CCIP). He is a member of the Strategic Academic Advisory Board of School of Governance and Public Affairs (SGPA), Xavier University Bhubaneswar and a member of the Research Advisory Group of Integrated Rural Technology Centre (IRTC), Kerala.

Dr. Elamon had successfully completed a course on ‘Climate Change and Health’ at Institute of Public Health, University of Heidelberg, Germany. He was a National Resource Person of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, India for decentralised participatory planning. He has also served in many committees set up by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, India and the Government of Kerala. He was earlier included in the UNDP Democratic Governance Roster of Experts in Local Governance and Local Development. Dr. Elamon was awarded the Outstanding Community Builder award by UNDP India (Solution Exchange) in 2007.

Dr. Elamon is a former Vice President of Kerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishad (People’s Science Movement), State Convener of Jan Swaasthya Abhiyaan Kerala (People’s Health Movement) and President of Kerala Sasthra Parishad (KSSP) Delhi Forum. He had also served as member of the Syndicate, Senate and Academic Council of University of Kerala. 

Catherine Morency is a civil engineer and a professor in the department of civil, geological and mining engineering of Polytechnique Montreal. She is head of the Mobilité research Chair on the implementation of sustainability in transportation as well as the Canada Research Chair on Personal Mobility which focuses on the interactions between the various transportation modes. She is member of the board of directors of the Montreal Transit Authority (STM) and of the Sustainable Mobility Agency of Montreal. She is also recipient of the 2021 Award of Excellence in Research and Innovation of Polytechnique Montreal.

David Satterthwaite is a senior fellow at IIED and visiting professor at the Development Planning Unit, University College London. Two recent books co-authored with Diana Mitlin were Urban Poverty in the Global South; Scale and Nature (2012) and Reducing Urban Poverty in the Global South (2013). Both were published by Routledge.

He was a co-ordinating lead author of the chapter on urban adaptation in the Fifth Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and he is currently working with other IPCC authors on a book on how cities can combine development and climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Vaishali Kushan has worked with the private and public sector, NGOs, bilateral and multilateral institutions and is considered to be a strategic leader and an expert in management, program development, financial forecasting, and research. Prior to joining the development finance sector, Vaishali worked in the banking industry in the commercial real estate department. While still with the banking sector she participated with City Development Block Grants to uplift the low-income neighbourhoods and marginalized communities. For the past 15 years, she has worked across Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe and the Americas. Her internship with UN-HABITAT exposed her to issues related to human development such as gender, health, water sanitation, economy, education, urban development and energy. To achieve sustainable goals, she uses a cross-sectoral approach. For the past few years, she has been working to empower micro small and medium-sized enterprises in investing in clean technologies that are environmentally friendly and energy-efficient. To protect the environment, she works to advocate in adapting to Environmental, Social and Governance. With a Bachelors in International Studies - Political, Economy & Business from the Henry Jackson School of the UW and Master in Public Administration from Cornell University, Ms. Kushan thrives in empowering society as a whole.

Mojgan is a PhD Candidate in the Lisbon School of Economics and Management at the University of Lisbon (Portugal) and a Visiting Scholar in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University. She is currently pursuing her PhD studies under the supervision of Olivia Bina (Lisbon) and Peter Victor (York). Furthermore, for her PhD studies she is investigating the use of system dynamics models to measure progress in reaching Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Mojgan is also a research fellow in the Systems Dynamics theme of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP). Mojgan’s research interests include the understanding of the linkages between macroeconomics and ecological economics, and the development and application of ecological macroeconomic modelling. She holds an undergraduate and master’s degree in economics from the University of Isfahan.

Email: Mojgan@phd.iseg.ulisboa.pt

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mojgan-chapariha-22283aa2

Professor Umesh Chandra Kulshrestha is a chemist turned to a trans-disciplinary researcher. Presently, he is the Dean of the School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He was the Director, Trans- disciplinary Research Cluster at JNU. He has made significant contributions towards atmospheric chemistry, air pollution and global change research. He has initiated the `Holistic Environment’ programme which focuses upon the integrated sustainable solutions for different environmental problems. He is a Fellow of Indian Geophysical Union. He is the Editor-in-chief of the Current World Environment journal. He is the Deputy Director, South Asian Nitrogen Center, New Delhi too. He is a member of the Advisory Committee of Knowledge and Awareness Mapping Platform [KAMP] – A Knowledge Alliance with CSIR-NISTADS.

He is an Assessor for National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), India. He is a member of Advisory Board of Hanell International. He is the Vice President of Society for Conservation of Nature (SCON). He was a member of the Environmental Pollution Control Authority, a regulatory body under Supreme Court of India (2018-20). He was a member of EIA Accreditation Committee of NABET-Quality Council of India (2016-20). He is a member of Editorial Board of Aerosol and Air Quality Research journal. Prof Kulshrestha is a recipient of a number of awards viz. START Young Scientist Award by IGBP-START, USA, Thomas Kuhn Honor Pin by IUAPPA and International Academy of Sciences, CSIR Young Scientist Award, and M S Krishnan Gold Medal by Indian Geophysical Union (IGU). He has published more than 100 journal papers and 5 books.

Dania González Couret is an Architect and PhD in Technical Sciences from the University of Havana and certified in Architecture, Energy and Environment from the University of Lund. She has numerous publications, has been a guest lecturer at universities in America and Europe and has received national and international awards, such as the National Habitat Distinction. She has served as Professor, President of the Academic Committee of the Master in Social Housing and of the Doctoral Program in Architecture at the University of Havana.

Xueye Liu joined Innovative Green Development Program (IGDP) as an analyst in 2019. She is currently researching urban sustainable development, as well as energy and low carbon policies. She worked for C40 City Climate Leadership Group from 2016-2019, helped launch and promoted C40’s Chinese Mobility Management network and led relevant strategic research. Before joining C40, Xueye was a Planner at China Urban Construction Design & Research Institute Co. Ltd for 4 years, where She implemented and led 20 projects varies from compiling national standards for Chinese national parks to compiling urban sustainable development planning.

Xueye Liu holds a Master of Ecology at Beijing Normal University.

For the last two decades, Blaine has been working at the intersection of business, innovation, and creativity.

As Founder and CEO of award-winning, independent creative company, Dot Dot Dash, she is responsible for producing content for tomorrow’s best brands including Patagonia, NASA, Greenpeace, Canada Post and Oceana. The studio is focussed on the delivery of world-class strategy and creative content.

With a career path that has focused on growth and technology, she was part of the team that launched text messaging at Rogers and helped to found and lead Canada's first social media agency, Radar DDB.

In late 2017, as adult-use recreational cannabis was nearing legalization, Blaine helped to co-found Business of Cannabis a media platform focused on building and legitimizing the global cannabis sector through news and events. She is also co-founder of the recently launched Report on Psychedelics which is the leading source of independent data and intelligence for the emerging psychedelics industry.

In 2021, Blaine launched Wilder, a business focussed on using nature-based solutions to fast track global reforestation.

Blaine holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Queens University.