The Summary for Urban Policymakers (SUP) series is supported by a partnership of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy’s alliance for city climate leadership, the Resilience First business network, the Indian Institute for Human Settlements, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action in collaboration with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), and led by Resilience Rising.
The SUP is a collaborative effort with teams from these partner organizations working across geographies and areas of expertise.
Head, Sustainable and Resilient City Initiatives Unit, EThekwini
Professor Debra Roberts is currently head of the Sustainable and Resilient City Initiatives Unit in eThekwini Municipality (Durban, South Africa) and was selected as the city’s first Chief Resilience Officer in 2013. Professor Roberts was a lead author of Chapter 8 (Urban Areas) of Working Group II’s contribution to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). She was elected as Co-Chair of Working Group II for the IPCC’s sixth assessment cycle in 2015. She was also a lead negotiator for the South African delegation involved in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations until December 2015. She is an Honorary Professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in the School of Life Sciences and has been an advisor to the Global Commission on Adaptation, United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) and the United Nations Secretary General’s 2019 Climate Summit. In 2019 she was included in a list of the World’s 100 Most Influential People in Climate Policy.
Director, Indian Institute for Human Settlements
Aromar Revi is the founding Director of the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS). He is a global practice and thought leader, and educator with over 37 years of interdisciplinary experience in sustainable development, global environmental change, long-term futures, governance, public policy and finance, and urbanisation. Aromar is a global expert on Sustainable Development; Co-Chair of UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN). He is a member of the Advisory Board of UCLG, the global voice of local and regional governments from 0.24 million towns, cities and regions.
Aromar is a leading expert on global environmental change, especially climate change. He was a Coordinating Lead Author (CLA) of the 2018 IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C. He is a CLA of the synthesis chapter on Climate Resilient Development Pathways of the IPCC AR 6 on Adaptation, and a member of the AR6 Synthesis Report Core Writing Team. He was also a CLA of the 2018 SR1.5 Summary for Urban Policymakers, and the 2021 Summary for Financial Decisionmakers. He was earlier a CLA of the IPCC Assessment Report 5 on Urban Areas, that established the role of cities and regions in addressing climate risks in 2014.
He is one of South Asia’s most experienced risk and disaster management professionals and has been a member of the Advisory Board of UNDRR’ Scientific & Technical Advisory Group (STAG) and its bi-annual Global Assessment of Risk (GAR), from 2008. He has led the design for UNDRR of the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), a global partnership to promote the resilience of infrastructure systems to climate and disaster risks.
CEO, Resilience Rising
Seth is CEO of Resilience Rising. A globally recognized innovator and thought leader, he has a long track record of building consensus and initiating change in the field of sustainable development, urban climate action and resilient infrastructure. He is a passionate advocate for solutions that advance a safe, resilient and sustainable future, the need for transformative decarbonisation and long-term resilience. Over the past two decades, Seth has worked with many of the most leading and innovative organisations in this space to turn theory into practice, including the Louis Berger Group, the US Green Building Council, the Clinton Foundation, C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, the Global Covenant of Mayors, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Resilience Shift. Seth shares his expertise through involvement with various boards and advisory councils, is a sought-after speaker and guest lecturer, and has authored numerous articles, reports, blogs and thought leadership pieces around the world.
Senior Fellow, Chicago Council of Global Affairs
Ian Klaus is a senior fellow on global cities and foreign policy at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. He also serves as director of research and policy for the Global Parliament of Mayors and as the series editor of the AR6 Summary for Urban Policymakers. Previously, he served as a diplomatic adviser to the Urban 20 and C40 City Climate Leadership Group.
He was senior adviser for global cities at the US Department of State. In that role, he led urban diplomacy for the United States, engaging dozens of foreign ministries and development agencies from Africa, South America, North America, Asia, and Europe on urbanization and foreign policy issues. He also internally managed the State Department’s efforts to develop urbanization-related policies. Klaus was deputy United States negotiator for the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Development. From 2011 – 2016, he served as member of the policy planning staff in the office of the Secretary of State, advising the Secretary of State and Director of Policy Planning. He has been a member of the World Economic Forum’s advisory board on the future of urban development, the Creative Cities Working Group at Stanford University, a visiting fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Ernest May Fellow for History and Security Studies at the Kennedy School of Government. He holds a Ph.D. in international history from Harvard University, and is the author of Forging Capitalism (Yale, 2014) and Elvis is Titanic (Knopf, 2007).
Amanda Eichel is a Senior Advisor at The Resilience Shift. She was the Executive Director of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy based in Brussels. Previously, Amanda worked at the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, where she led the regional and programmatic teams, and directed research and knowledge management efforts.
Prior to joining C40, Amanda worked for Mayor Bloomberg’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability in New York City and served as Climate Protection Advisor to the Mayor of Seattle, Washington.
Associate Dean, School of Environment and Sustainability; School of Systems and Infrastructure; Senior Lead Practice, Indian Institute for Human Settlements.
Amir Bashir Bazaz is Senior Lead-Practice at IIHS. He has a PhD in Management from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, with a specialization in Public Systems. He has substantial experience of working with various integrated assessment frameworks and modelling arrangements. His current research interests are low-carbon societies/infrastructure, climate change mitigation and adaptation (across scales) with specific focus on urban climate change linkages and climate, energy and environment policy.
Amir he has been a Contributing Author to the IPCC Special Report on 1.5C (Chapter 4), is Contributing Author to the Feasibility assessment in the AR6 cycle, has been a Lead Author on the Summary for Urban Policy Makers (SUPM), and has been a Lead Author on the Summary for Financial Decision Makers (SFDM). He was also the National Expert Consultant to the Government of India, managing the production and submission of India’s Second National Communication to the UNFCCC.
At IIHS, Amir had been the Regional Research Lead for a multi-partner, multi-year climate adaptation research project — Adaptation at Scale in Semi-Arid Regions (ASSAR). This project was part of an IDRC/DFID funded global climate adaptation research programme — Collaborative Adaptation Research Initiative in Africa and Asia (CARIAA) operational across West, South and East Africa as well as South Asia. In addition, Amir has been a part of many practice-based engagements at IIHS, notably on ‘Energy Innovation’ in partnership with Cambridge University; and ‘GCRF-PEAK program, focusing on sustainable energy transitions in the Urban context’ in partnership with Oxford University, Peking University, and the University of Cape Town and EAFIT University, Colombia. He is the Lead Researcher for the Volkswagen Foundation funded multi-country, multi-year RESET project (Reconfiguring Sustainable Energy Transitions) that tracks the energy transition in India, Germany, the Netherlands and South Africa. He also manages the Disaster Risk & Resilience portfolio at IIHS.
Senior Research Consultant – Practice, Indian Institute for Human Settlements
Chandni Singh has a PhD in International Development from the University of Reading, United Kingdom and works at the interface of climate change and development in the global South. At IIHS, she works on climate change adaptation, drivers of differential vulnerability to climate change and hazards, and rural and urban livelihood transitions. She was a Contributing Author on the IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C and is a Lead Author on the Working Group II Assessment Report 6 (Chapter 10 Asia and Cross-chapter Paper on Cities and Settlements by the Sea).
Chandni is also a Lead Author on UCCRN’s Third Assessment Report on Climate Change and Cities, and Contributing Author on the UNESCO-ICOMOS-IPCC “Cultural Heritage and Climate Change” Initiative. She serves on the editorial boards of Regional Environmental Change, Urbanisation, and Climate and Development, and is the ‘Vulnerability and Adaptation’ Domain Editor for Wires-Climate Change. She has previously worked in research and practice-based organisations such as the University of Reading (UK), Bioversity International, Pragya, and WWF India across South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Chandni is also deeply interested in science communication for lay audiences and is a published poet.
Senior Consultant- Director’s Office, Indian Institute for Human Settlements.
Prathijna Poonacha Kodira earned MSc in Human Settlements from Katholieke University, Leuven, Belgium. She is senior consultant with the Director’s Office, the Practice team and is a part of the School of Environment and Sustainability. She mainly works with the climate change team. Her work focuses on understanding climate change impacts and responses in urban and peri-urban geographies both from top-down and bottom-up perspectives. In peri-urban Bangalore, her research looks at how communities are responding to climatic and non-climatic risks in the context of rapid social and ecological changes with a particular focus on gender dynamics. She is also interested in understanding and applying various tools to enable multi-stakeholder participation in decision making especially in the urban context. One such tool is Transformative Scenario Planning which facilitates her interaction with diverse stakeholders to imagine the future of water in Bengaluru.
Prior to IIHS, Prathijna has worked in various organizations ranging from civil society organizations, academic and research institutions in the field of heritage planning and conservation, and design consultancy.
External Consultant, Practice Programme, Indian Institute for Human Settlements
A Landscape Planner with a background in Architecture, Swati has a keen interest in the land-climate nexus. Her research approach emanates the ability to succinctly foreground geo-climatic and socio-ecological understandings through innovative open-collaborative thinking and critically blend with interdisciplinary methods (both quantitative and qualitative). She has previously worked on a rural development project in Gujarat and climate-action research project in northern Karnataka. Swati is also a co-founder of Green Panther, an initiative which provides nature-based learning resources for children. An ardent member of India Greens Party, she stays engaged in green politics to get to the institutional roots of sustainable development.
Amy Leitch
Associate, ARUP
Amy Leitch is an Associate with Arup’s New York office, working across platforms, projects and initiatives to accelerate a shift in urban planning and practice towards resilience critical infrastructure. She has over 13 years’ experience working as a sustainability and city resilience consultant on large-scale urban planning projects, city-wide plans and policies, and developing and delivering some of the world’s leading thought leadership and guidance on urban resilience and climate action. Her projects include the City Resilience Index, C40 Cities’ Climate Action in Mega-cities reports, and co-leading with the Urban Sustainability Directors Network a two-year initiative with 11 US cities to collaboratively develop a toolkit for local governments to center racial equity within climate planning and action.
Researcher, Indian Institute for Human Settlements.
Maitreyi Koduganti Venkata is a researcher with the Practice team at IIHS. She has earned a second Master’s degree in Water Management and Governance from UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, the Netherlands. Much of her work in the last six years focused on climate sciences, vulnerability studies, resource management, gender studies, sustainability and Research-into-Use. Her inclination towards action-oriented research have resulted in developing documentaries and participatory games alongside UNCESCO-IHE Delft and Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, South Africa. In the past, Maitreyi has worked with Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR) and Development Alternatives (DA) in the areas of agrarian studies, climate sciences, stakeholder engagement and watershed development.
At IIHS, she has been part of many climate change adaptation research and practice initiatives. She is also engaged in writing several academic articles, blogs and op-eds around climate change and resource management. She also serves as the president for the Water Youth Network.
Head of Communication & Design, Indian Institute for Human Settlements
Padma leads communications for SUP and is Head – IIHS Communications and Design. Bringing over two decades of experience across advertising, PR, corporate communications and marcomm, she manages IIHS’ vast portfolio of knowledge products and services, across 40 key focus areas, on the communications and design side including strategic planning, content strategy, digital marketing and multi-stakeholder outreach, to both external and internal audiences, to build and nurture institutional brand and reputation.
Shaiksha is part of the SUP team for the website design & development, he is a creative innovator, branding strategist, with 15+ years of experience creating impactful visual solutions for various clients across numerous industry verticals. His broad range of graphic design expertise and a deep understanding of the psychology behind design to create effective campaigns and corporate narratives.
He is an expert in production design and asset creation for modern press and ability to take complex data and present it in a clear way to the audiences. He is skilled in Visual Design, Typography, User Experience (UX) and Web Design.
Beena is responsible for the strategic partnership and engagement direction of Resilience First’s corporate membership and networks.
With over 20 years’ experience in the membership sector, Beena was previously the Events Director at London First, where she grew their programme of membership engagement through an expanded calendar of events with senior executives and politicians, whilst at the same time leading on large-scale commercial summits (including East West Institute’s second Worldwide Cyber Security Summit) and awards ceremonies. Beena also spearheaded Skills London, the UK’s largest careers fair for 15 to 24 years old, and the London Planning Awards, organised in partnership with the Mayor of London.
Prior to that, Beena was the Head of Membership at the French Chamber of Commerce in Great Britain (FCCGB), where she grew their membership base and introduced new member services to increase the network’s engagement. At the FCCGB, Beena also had the opportunity to work with the French government as well as HRH The Prince of Wales.
Beena currently sits on the Board of the Global Tech Advocates Future of Work Committee and is excited to also recently be appointed to the International Security Expo Advisory Council.
Outside of work, Beena enjoys life with her family, yoga and travelling.
Giorgia has joined the Global Covenant of Mayors Secretariat in 2020, where she leads the work on Global-Regional Cohernece and Coordiantion, working to support the GCoM allaince partners to implement the mission and vision of the GCoM across the world, while respecting Regional and national contexts.
Giorgia is also acting as the coordinator of the international dimension of the Covenant of Mayors – Europe She has a strong expertise in international urban diplomacy as former head of the coordination unit of the International Urban Cooperation.
Giorgia is the Coordinator for climate policy and energy governance at the European Secretariat of ICLEI-Local Governemntts for Sustainability with over 12 years of experience in the fields of climate and energy. She strongly believes that the involvement of cities and regions is vital to driving forward sustainability in Europe, as well as for achieving the objectives of the Paris Agreement.
Giorgia drafted positioning documents on climate and energy policy, as well as provided expert contributions to Opinions for institutions such as the Committee of the Regions and the European Economic and Social Committee.
Prior to joining ICLEI, Giorgia gained professional experience in the Italian Embassy in Jakarta and as a research assistant at the University of Sydney.
Malavika is a visual designer and illustrator from Bangalore. She aims to create culturally and environmentally relevant work that is intentional, immersive and engaging to the viewer.
Her interest in spatial and visual design took her to London where she completed her MA in Narrative Environments at UAL, Central Saint Martins. Malavika focuses on projects and narratives that are directed toward social development, education and change. At IIHS, she is part of the communications and design team.
Malavika is a visual designer and illustrator from Bangalore. She aims to create culturally and environmentally relevant work that is intentional, immersive and engaging to the viewer.
Her interest in spatial and visual design took her to London where she completed her MA in Narrative Environments at UAL, Central Saint Martins. Malavika focuses on projects and narratives that are directed toward social development, education and change. At IIHS, she is part of the communications and design team.
Marnie has worked in multiple global cities over the past two decades including Sydney, Toronto, New York, Vancouver and Athens – in the areas of urban planning and policy, strategic communications, stakeholder engagement, and government relations, bringing national and international coalitions and networks together to advocate for local solutions to global issues.
Her extensive background in municipal government includes experience with urban policy files including climate adaptation and mitigation, rapid transit, sustainable transportation, affordable housing and refugee integration.
