- Calendar
- Wednesday 24 June 2026
- Clock
- 09:00–19:00
Overview
Held as part of London Climate Action Week, we will be showcasing how collaborative research between the University of Edinburgh and industry partners is being applied to real-world challenges in finance. The event will be a space for practical exchange and exploring future collaboration between academics, policy makers, investors and finance professionals.
We will explore how research across fields including mathematics, law, AI and geoscience can inform business decision-making, financing, policy and regulation. You’ll have the opportunity to connect with academics whose work is helping to:
- Assess climate and nature-related financial risks and their business impacts
- Strengthen carbon accounting methodologies and reporting accuracy
- Transform corporate sustainability disclosure through AI-driven tools
- Model and quantify extreme weather events and their economic consequences
- Deploy climate finance to reduce emissions across agricultural supply chains
Climate Finance Marketplace
In both the morning and afternoon we are running a Climate Finance Marketplace – an opportunity for you to meet our academics, discuss your work, and start identifying potential opportunities for collaboration as you move around the room.
Who should attend
This event is for anyone working in sustainable finance and investment, including financial services, NGOs, government and regulators.
About us
The University of Edinburgh is one of the world’s top research-intensive universities. We are ranked joint 1st in the world for contributions to industry, innovation and infrastructure for sustainable development, and 4th in the world for sustainability[1]. Across the board, 86% of our research is classified as world-leading or internationally excellent[2].
Come to this event to learn about the practical implications of our research and what it could mean for your work.
Programme
Across six sessions, we will share the best of our latest climate research and innovation. Academics will present their work alongside industry speakers, to show how research is being applied in practice to sustainable finance and investment. Each session will include plenty of time for discussion and Q&A.
You can book for the morning, afternoon and/or evening part of the event.
Reception drinks and alumni networking
In the evening we invite University of Edinburgh alumni in London and the surrounding area to join us for a networking event. This will include a guest talk from Charlotte Lee-Wolf, our Business Development Manager for Social Responsibility and Sustainability. Charlotte will share her insights about climate and environment innovation at the University of Edinburgh and some of the commercial opportunities available.
| Time | Session | Speakers |
|---|---|---|
| 08:30–09:15 | Registration | |
| 09:15 | Welcome | Professor Luca Taschini, Chair in Climate Change Finance, University of Edinburgh |
| 09:30 | Session 1 – Climate finance in emerging markets
|
Professor Nick Wheelhouse, Honorary Fellow, Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh
|
| 10:15 | Session 2 – Modelling climate risk
|
Dr Amy Wilson, Lecturer in Industrial Mathematics, University of Edinburgh
|
| 11:00 | Tea and coffee break | |
| 11:15 | Session 3 – Investing in carbon capture and storage
|
Dr Navraj Singh Ghaleigh, Senior Lecturer in Climate Law, University of Edinburgh
|
| 12:00 | Climate Finance Marketplace | |
| 12:45 | Lunch and networking | |
| 13:45 | Session 4 – Sustainability reporting and AI
|
Dr Adam Chalmers, Senior Lecturer, University of Edinburgh
|
| 14:30 | Session 5 – Satellite data for sustainable finance
|
Professor Iain Woodhouse, Personal Chair in Applied Earth Observation
|
| 15:15 | Tea and coffee break | |
| 15:30 | Session 6 – Carbon accounting
|
Dr Michelle O’Keeffe, Senior Research Fellow, University of Edinburgh
|
| 16:15 | Climate Finance Marketplace | |
| 17:00 | Reception drinks and alumni networking | |
| 19:00 | Close |
Speakers
Jonathan Banks
Jonathan has worked with the Clean Air Task Force since 1999 and leads the Methane Pollution Prevention program, where he develops and directs international efforts to dramatically reduce methane pollution from energy, waste, and agriculture. Jonathan also serves on the board of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition.
Dr Adam Chalmers
Adam is a Senior Lecturer whose areas of expertise include corporate sustainability policy, corporate lobbying and natural language processing. He also founds companies that put this research into practice.
Paul Drummond
Paul is Climate and Environment Research Lead & Co-head of Greenwheel, at London-based asset manager Redwheel. He is also Honorary Associate Professor at University College London, where he previously spent a decade researching and teaching on the energy transition.
Dr Navraj Singh Ghaleigh
Navraj is a Senior Lecturer and climate lawyer, focusing on the regulation of carbon dioxide removals and how environmental rights and obligations are incorporated into national constitutions. He works alongside practitioners and integrates legal thinking into climate research and finance.
Vishal Kumar
Vishal is Associate Director at Canbury Insights, a technology-enabled sustainability consultancy. He integrates risk and opportunity analysis into investment and strategic decision-making for both investors and corporates, and has led large-scale research projects for the UN Taskforce for Net Zero Policy and the Principles for Responsible Investment.
Erin Leonard
Erin works on the agriculture finance team at Environmental Defense Fund, where she focuses on crop insurance, carbon markets, and innovative finance mechanisms across both livestock and crop systems, to create better financial incentives for farmers to shift toward more resilient production practices.
Dr Christos Mitas
Christos is Managing Director of Analytics & Modeling at Moody’s Analytics. He leads the climate hazard teams of Model Development, P&S, and Insurance, with a focus on integrating advanced modelling frameworks of catastrophe risk into re/insurance applications.
Paris Mudan
Paris is a Senior ESG and Investor Engagement Consultant with a background in marine biology and shareholder advisory. He helps companies engage with stakeholders while meeting their regulatory reporting obligations
Dr Michelle O’Keeffe
Michelle is a Senior Research Fellow in Carbon Accounting with expertise in corporate-level greenhouse gas accounting and impact investing. Michelle joined the University in 2023 following a career in the fields of environmental consulting, climate not-for-profit and investment management, spanning over 20 years.
James Phare
James is CEO of Neural Alpha - an AI native sustainability platform for financial institutions and corporates. He has 20 years’ experience in financial services and is also the founder of Connected Data London - one of the largest conferences in the world specialising in neurosymbolic AI and semantic technology.
Professor Luca Taschini
Luca is a Professor and Chair of Climate Change Finance, and the Director of the Centre for Business, Climate Change, and Sustainability. He advises governments, regulators and businesses around the world on the implementation of climate finance.
Nataliya Tkachenko-Love
Nataliya is the Responsible AI Mobilisation Lead at Lloyds Banking Group. She is a lead author of the Abu Dhabi Principles for AI in Global Energy Planning, a high level expert group member on AI at the UN Science Policy Business Forum on the Environment, and an executive board member at the UK Open Multimodal AI Network.
Professor Nick Wheelhouse
Nick is a Professor of Comparative Infectious Disease. He co-leads the Animal Health and Greenhouse Gas Intensity Network and collaborates with multiple partner organisations in the UK and overseas. Nick is interested in how climate finance can be used to improve farming in emerging markets.
Dr Amy Wilson
Amy is a Lecturer in Industrial Mathematics with a background in interdisciplinary applied statistics for problems in industry and government. She is interested in how we can use statistics in decision-making under uncertainty.
Professor Iain Woodhouse
Iain is a Professor of Applied Earth Observation at the University of Edinburgh, specialising in active remote sensing. He has over 27 years experience in academia and industry, 100+ publications, and advises UK government agencies on earth observation strategy.
Footnotes
[1] Times Higher Education Impact Rankings 2025, contribution to SDG 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure; QS World University Rankings 2026 Sustainability
[2] Latest Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021