Frans Berkhout

Professor of Environment, Society and Climate, King’s College London

Frans Berkhout is Professor of Environment, Society and Climate at King’s College London. He was a lead author in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s 4th and 5th Assessment Reports (2007 and 2014). His research on climate change adaptation is informed by behavioral organisational theory and policy studies, understanding that the adaptive capacity of actors is institutionally-situated.

His interest flows from his work in the IPCC on ‘limits to adaptation’ and the application of a risk-based approach that he helped develop for the problem of ‘loss and damage’ in the UNFCCC. He is interested in developing approaches to specifying limits to adaptation that may inform novel approaches to the governance of losses suffered as actors reach such limits.

Kerstin Stendahl

Special Envoy on Environment Security at the Ministry of the Environment and the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairpersonship-in-Office

Kerstin Stendahl is the Special Envoy on Environment Security at the Ministry of the Environment and the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairpersonship-in-Office. She has extensive experience in the field of international environmental governance and diplomacy having worked for a decade at the United Nations Environment Programme in various senior roles related to climate (IPCC), chemicals, biodiversity and ocean governance. Before her current position she was the Special Envoy on Environment and Climate at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

Petteri Taalas

Director General of the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI)

Prof. Taalas has a PhD from Helsinki University and is a Docent of the University of Eastern Finland. Taalas led the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) for 8 years in 2016-2023. In Finland he has worked at the Finnish Meteorological Institute as a researcher, Research Professor and currently as the Director General (in 2002-2015 and again from the beginning of 2024).
Taalas is the Chair of the National IPCC Working Group of Finland and has acted as a Member of the Board of Fortum and as the first Chair of the University of Eastern Finland. He has acted as the Adviser in climate issues for the UN Secretary-General António Guterres. The Reader’s Digest nominated Prof. Taalas as the European of the Year in 2021 for the excellent work done for climate communication. For the same reason he has been rewarded by the Foundation of Louise ja Göran Ehrnrooth and Niemi Foundation.