Dr. Tsukamoto is Director of the Regional Resource Centre for Asia and the Pacific (RRC.AP)at the Asian Institute of Technology, which aims to assists countries to advance their environmental and sustainable development goals through capacity-building, knowledge sharing, policy advice, and research on Climate Change, Air and Atmosphere, and Resource Efficiency / Waste Management
In his professional career, he has served as Senior Environment Engineer for the World Bank, head of Japanese Delegation to the IPCC/AR4, Vice-Chair and a board member of the Adaptation Fund Board, member of the Adaptation Committee of UNFCCC, Secretary-General/Principal Researcher for the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), and Project Director under the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS).

Mr. Phurba is Head of Climate Change and Disaster Risk Resilience Cluster at Regional Resource Center for Asia and the Pacific (RRC.AP) at the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand. He leads the team in providing capacity building and knowledge sharing services to the stakeholders in Asia and the Pacific regions on Climate Finance, Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation, and Disaster Risk Reduction. Before joining RRC.AP he worked for WWF in Bhutan and Cambodia for over 10 years managing projects and programmes related to Conservation, Eco-tourism, Climate Change, Freshwater, and River Basin Management. Prior to that he served as a Government Official for 11 years in Bhutan under the Department of Forests and Park Services working for protected area management.

Mr. Amach is the lead for communication and resource mobilization at UNDRR’s Regional Office for Asia-Pacific. He is also the UNDRR focal point for the Making Cities Resilient 2030 secretariat in Asia-Pacific. Prior to joining UNDRR in 2018, Mr Amach was a Foreign Affairs Officer at the US Department of State, in Washington DC, USA. In his 12 years with the Department, he covered a number of functional and regional portfolios, mostly focused on the Middle East and Asia.

Mr. Curt Garrigan is Chief of the Sustainable Urban Development Section for the Environment and Development Division of UN ESCAP. Before joining UN ESCAP, Mr. Garrigan served as Cities and Buildings Programme Manager for UN Environment based in Paris, France. He led UN Environment’s efforts to plan, along with major building sector stakeholders, the first ‘Buildings Day’ at COP21, and to launch the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction, which has mobilized 24 countries and more than 70 organisations to scale up building sector climate actions. He also coordinated the UN Environment’s efforts to assist countries in Southeast Asia to develop Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) for the building sector. Before the UN Environment, Mr. Garrigan served more than 20 years in many operational and management roles for the Metropolitan Government of Nashville, Tennessee USA including as a Deputy Mayor.

Dr. Lis Mullin Bernhardt is an international development and environment professional who joined the UN Environment Programme in August 2016, first in the Freshwater Ecosystems Unit and then from November 2019 as part of the Climate Change Adaptation Unit. Lis is now the Coordinator for the Global Adaptation Network, an initiative that shares key adaptation knowledge and information around the world. In 2019 Lis also served on secondment to the Policy and Programme Division for SDGs coordination across house. Lis worked with UNICEF, Amnesty International and the UN Volunteers Secretariat, and UN-Water. Currently, she is a Programme Officer/Coordinator at the Climate Change Adaptation Unit of UNEP.

Dr. Jessica Barlow is a Professor at San Diego State University (SDSU), and she is the Executive Director of the SDSU Center for Regional Sustainability. Barlow founded and directs the Sage Project, which partners with local governmental and community organizations in the greater San Diego-Tijuana region via replication of the Educational Partnerships for Innovation in Communities (EPIC) Model. Barlow is a founding board member and currently serves as the Vice President of the EPIC Network. In this capacity, she oversees efforts to grow the network internationally through collaboration with national and international agencies.

Mr. Armen Rostomyan has over 20 years of experience working as a Programme Manager in the fields of disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation, humanitarian and sustainable development; program and budget management, monitoring and evaluation; organizational development, human and institutional capacity development, and strengthening civil society organizations. He worked as a Programme Manager and Organizational Development Specialist based both in HQ/ Secretariats, Regional Offices as well as in the Field Offices of various International Organizations such as the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, United Nations Development Program, World Bank, Habitat for Humanity International, Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), and Amnesty International Secretariat, responsible for the management of a portfolio of various humanitarian and development programs in 18 countries of Europe, Asia, and Africa regions.