Regional Stakeholder Consultations

Sandra Greiner

Sandra Greiner is a Lead Consultant at Climate Focus with over 20 years of experience in the area of international climate policy, climate negotiations, and carbon markets.

Her broad expertise ranges from supporting greenhouse gas emission reduction projects on the ground to advising financial institutions, multilateral organizations and governments in their carbon procurement and climate related strategies. She also supports efforts to revitalize market-based approaches in international climate policy and the disbursement of climate finance. Under the UNFCCC, Sandra represents The Gambia in the negotiations on markets and non-markets under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. She also works closely with countries in the West African region in supporting country’s access to international climate finance as a member of the steering committee of the West African Alliance on Carbon Markets and Climate Finance.

Prior to joining Climate Focus, Sandra worked from 2002 to 2006 as a carbon finance specialist for the World Bank in Washington, D.C. as one of the pioneers in the global carbon market.

Sandra holds degrees from Hamburg University (MSc. and PhD in Economics).

Robi Redda

Robi Redda is a director of SouthSouthNorth. He has extensive experience as an environmental management specialist, including in environmental and social impact assessment, climate change adaptation and mitigation, and climate finance, having previously worked for the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), and the World Bank in East Africa.  

He has been an advisor on a number of strategic issues to the Government of Ethiopia, including the development of the Country’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) in 2015, and the NDC’s update (in 2020 and 2021), the latter involving advisory inputs to the carbon markets component of the NDC Update. Robi was also a climate finance advisor (Green Climate Fund and Adaptation Fund access) to the Ministry of National Development Planning of the Government of Zambia, and the Ministry of Finance of Ethiopia.  

Robi, who is currently studying in the doctoral programme for professionals at the University College London, holds degrees from the Addis Ababa University (BSc.), Wageningen University (MSc.), and Concordia University in Canada (post-graduate diploma). 

Carolina Inclan

Carolina Inclan is a senior consultant at Climate Focus.  She specializes in economics and policy for energy and climate change. She has experience analyzing, evaluating, and designing carbon pricing instruments and companion energy and transport policies to achieve a zero-carbon transition. Her current work focuses on advising governments on communicating carbon pricing for different audiences and looking at strategic policy options to reach climate commitments. 

Before joining Climate Focus, Carolina conducted a research stay at the International Carbon Action Partnership to analyze design options of implementing an ETS with different electricity market structures and additional energy policies. She also worked for the Carbon Trust and the Mexican government to provide technical assistance in designing carbon pricing mechanisms, electromobility, and other energy and transport policies. 

Carolina holds degrees from the University College London (MSc. in Economics and Policy for Energy and the Environment) and Universidad Iberoamericana (BEc).

Sven Kolmetz

Sven Kolmetz is the project portfolio director at Climate Bridge Ltd where he is involved in the development of and offers strategic advice on the management of CDM, VCS and GS projects in China, specializing the area of small hydro, wind, biomass, landfill gas, and PV. He also serves as the head of the supervisory board for SCE where he was previously the director acting as the lead auditor and technical reviewer for verification in the EU-ETS, energy management systems, and in the verification of GHG inventories.

Paul Butarbutar

Paul Butarbutar has more than 28 years of professional experience in diverse sectors, including more than 22 years in the environment-related field, such as transport and energy related air pollution, municipality solid waste, and climate change. He is currently the executive director for IRES. 

In 2018, he joined PT 3GT Servis Indonesia to lead the development of hydropower plant projects in Sumatra. In 2020, jointly with like-minded colleague, he established the Indonesia Research Institute for Decarbonization (IRID), a research institute that focuses on climate-related and decarbonization issues. Currently Paul is supporting Indonesia’s government as part of the negotiator for UN Climate Change Conference. 

Paul has been assigned as chairman of the Indonesian Carbon Management Association since 2011, elected as committee member for the Indonesian Renewable Energy Society (IRES), and has been assigned as Head of Division for Policy, Regulation, and Advocacy since 2015.

Christiaan Vrolijk

Christiaan Vrolijk has 25 years’ experience as a climate change, energy, and sustainable development expert. He is manager of global markets at Natural Capital Partners, a world-leading provider of innovative solutions for a positive impact on the world’s Natural Capital, and voted the best offset retailer for 10 consecutive years; providing insight on global policy developments in the (voluntary) carbon markets. As well as delivering emission reductions and removals, sustainable energy and energy certificates, and environmental solutions, such as water, biodiversity, and woodland creation.

He is also Vice-Chair of the Project Developer Forum, Vice-Chair of the Policy Working Group of the International Carbon Reduction and Offset Alliance, and on the VCS Programme Advisory Group. He was previously a member of the CDM Methodologies Panel. 

Prior to joining Natural Capital Partners, he was Principal Advisor at Carbon Resource Manager, one of the global top 5 carbon project developers, and Research Fellow at Chatham House where he co-authored the first textbook on the Kyoto Protocol.

Sandra Garavito

Sandra Garavito Rojas has 15 years of experience in climate change policy and low carbon development. She is an originator and facilitator of international initiatives in the Colombian context that aim to accelerate low carbon transitions in different sectors at the national and subnational levels through renewable energy policy implementation tasks and carbon markets design.

She has led several climate change initiatives in the past eight years through bilateral and multilateral financing focusing on mitigation, carbon markets and MRV; providing technical advisory services and capacity building for local partners to promote transformational actions for a low emissions economy. 

She started her career at the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development of Colombia where she coordinated for five years the climate mitigation agenda and initiated the Colombian Low Carbon Development Strategy. She also managed the carbon markets agenda for the energy and industry sectors at the Ministry, including the CDM opportunities and represented Colombia at the UNFCCC negotiations and the OECD meetings in mitigation and carbon market mechanisms discussions.  Sandra has engaged in the global VCM dialogue in the consultations with the private sector and is engaging Latin América stakeholders in the initiative. 

Pedro Moura Costa

Dr. Pedro Moura Costa is the founder of BVRio, a Brazilian non-profit organization aimed at promoting market mechanisms to facilitate compliance with environmental laws. He has been involved in all aspects of climate polity and finance since 1991 when he started the first carbon-funded projects worldwide based on rainforest rehabilitation and reduced impact logging by the Sabah Foundation in Malaysia. 

In 1996, he co-founded EcoSecurities Group Plc, the world leader in carbon trading listed in the London Stock Exchange. Through BVRio he developed the Responsible Timber Exchange, a platform to facilitate the trading of legal timber products, and the Responsible Commodities Facility, a debt fund to promote the production and trading of zero deforestation soy in Brazil. 

Pedro was a Honorary Research Associate of the Smith School at Oxford University and has published over 100 articles and books on greenhouse gas mitigation and carbon trading including as a Lead Author in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports that were recognized with a Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. 

Maggie Comstock

Maggie Comstock is the senior director of Climate Policy at Conservation International leading the institution’s work to support nature-based solutions to climate mitigation and adaptation within global policy frameworks, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), Green Climate Fund (GCF) and other international fora. She is a subject matter expert on policies related to natural climate solutions, REDD+, carbon markets, and climate finance.  

Maggie previously worked on Climate and Biodiversity Finance Policy at Conservation International, managing the organization’s overall biodiversity policy engagement with particular focus to matters related to finance. Prior to joining Conservation International, she worked at the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), contributing to the organization’s international green building policy and market development efforts, including supporting the uptake of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification globally. 

Maggie holds a degree from the University of Cambridge (MA in Environment, Society and Development), where she researched international carbon markets and their implications for developing countries. 

Plínio Ribeiro

Plínio Ribeiro is the co-founder and CEO of Biofílica, co-founder and advisor of Audsat, co-founder and chairman of the Fiscal Council of Instituto Escolhas, co-founder and investor of Parquetur and currently heads the sustainability committee of the Brazilian Rural Society. 

He has vast experience with REDD+ project development, international advocacy and government collaboration; founding in 2008 one of the first REDD+ project development companies in Brazil. 

Plínio holds degrees from INSPER (BA in Business Administration) and Columbia University and the Earth Institute (MA in Public Administration and Environment). 

Annie Groth

Annie Groth is a sustainability consultant at Biofílica. She works daily with REDD+ carbon credit project management, client engagement and policy developments within the Brazilian and European context. In addition, she has been working closely with the UN Global Compact to advance sustainability and social goals through private efforts. 

Within the VCM Global Dialogue, Annie co-authored the REDD+ paper. She contributed by analyzing the results of several stakeholder interviews and writing primarily the sections on co-benefits and financing.   

Annie holds degrees from Maastricht University (BA in Liberal Arts) and Sciences Po (MA in International Public Administration).

Sandra Greiner

Sandra Greiner is a Lead Consultant at Climate Focus with over 20 years of experience in the area of international climate policy, climate negotiations, and carbon markets.

Her broad expertise ranges from supporting greenhouse gas emission reduction projects on the ground to advising financial institutions, multilateral organizations and governments in their carbon procurement and climate related strategies. She also supports efforts to revitalize market-based approaches in international climate policy and the disbursement of climate finance. Under the UNFCCC, Sandra represents The Gambia in the negotiations on markets and non-markets under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. She also works closely with countries in the West African region in supporting country’s access to international climate finance as a member of the steering committee of the West African Alliance on Carbon Markets and Climate Finance.

Prior to joining Climate Focus, Sandra worked from 2002 to 2006 as a carbon finance specialist for the World Bank in Washington, D.C. as one of the pioneers in the global carbon market.

Sandra holds degrees from Hamburg University (MSc. and PhD in Economics).

Andrew Howard

Andrew Howard is an independent consultant supporting governments, international institutions, and business groups in developing and working with carbon market policies.

His recent work has included advising governments on their market strategies, supporting government dialogues feeding into the Article 6 negotiations under the UNFCCC, researching MRV and accounting frameworks, and developing approaches on ESG ratings, crediting of carbon removals, and participation in voluntary markets. Andrew previously worked with the UN Climate Change Secretariat; most recently as manager for strategy and collaboration on markets, where he managed the implementation of critical carbon market and registry infrastructure, coordinated the regulatory bodies for project-based crediting, and led its support for the UNFCCC negotiations on market issues.

Charlotte Streck

Charlotte Streck is a co-founder and director of Climate Focus. She serves as an advisor to numerous governments and non-profit organizations, private companies, and foundations on legal aspects of climate policy, international negotiations, policy development, and implementation. She is also a renowned international expert on climate change mitigation, forests and agriculture. Prior to founding Climate Focus, Charlotte held the role of Senior Counsel with the World Bank in Washington, D.C. from 2000 to 2005.

Charlotte serves on several advisory and investment committees. She serves on the boards of the Verra standards organization and the German Foundation for the Future of the Carbon Market, and is a the independent member of the Althelia Climate Fund. She is on several editorial boards, and an associate editor of the Climate Policy journal.  She is a very prolific writer and has edited half a dozen books. 

Concerned about communicating the complexity of environmental problems, Charlotte dedicates a part of her time to projects that use the enthusiasm ignited by the arts and sports to raise awareness for climate change.

Charlotte holds degrees from the University of Regensburg (MSc in Biology) and Humboldt University (JD and PhD in law). She is an honorary Professor of the University of Potsdam, and a lecturer at the University of Bayreuth. 

Adriaan Korthuis

Adriaan Korthuis is a co-founder and director of Climate Focus. He is the strategic advisor of companies, government agencies and international organizations across the globe. He possesses a profound knowledge of climate change projects and market dynamics. He is a strong promoter of private sector engagement in climate finance and has a keen eye on the interaction between public sector policy development and private sector engagement. Prior to co-founding Climate Focus, Adriaan set-up and managed the programs for purchasing carbon credits from the Clean Development Mechanism and Joint Implementation on behalf of the Dutch Government. 

Adriaan enjoys presenting to large and small audiences, and breaking down complex information on climate finance and climate policy into understandable terms that allow business developers and policy officers to make an informed decision. Being compassionate about turning his own city – Rotterdam  – more sustainable, Adriaan has been one of the initiators of the Rotterdam Call for Climate Action. This business initiative has contributed to a stronger climate policy of the local city administration. 

Adriaan holds a degree from Wageningen University (MSc in Food Science) and is a trained Moderator of Logical Framework Workshops. 

Mark Kenber

Mark Kenber is a managing director at Climate Advisers and leads its Orbitas programme, working on the impacts of climate transitions on tropical agriculture. His previous roles include CEO at Mongoose Energy and The Climate Group and he currently sits on the boards of Verra, Community Energy England, and Brighton and Hove Energy Services Co-op.

Lieke ‘t Gilde

Lieke ‘t Gilde is a senior climate policy consultant at Climate Focus. She advises governments on designing and communicating carbon pricing policies, and supports both governments and the private sector to navigate the voluntary carbon market and Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.

She recently engaged with Ghana through the UNFCCC CI-ACA project to explore the suitability of different carbon pricing approaches, and is currently working with Pakistan to design a carbon pricing communications roadmap. She has worked with several corporations to explore and design climate and offsetting strategies, and contributed to the development of several Article 6 pilot activities, staying closely engaged with the Article 6 negotiations. As part of the Rotterdamse Klimaatoproep, Lieke co-managed a network of stakeholders in the city of Rotterdam aiming to accelerate local climate action. 

Lieke holds an LLM in European and International Law from the University of Amsterdam.