Achieving South Africa’s low-carbon, climate-resilient, and just transition

Axel van Trotsenburg (@AxelVT_WB) is the World Bank Managing Director of Operations. In this role, which he assumed on October 1, 2019, Mr. Van Trotsenburg oversees the Bank’s operational program and ensures that the Bank’s delivery model continues to meet the needs of client countries. He also builds support and mobilizes financial resources across the international community for efforts to assist low and middle-income countries.

Ayat Soliman (@ayatsoliman7) is the World Bank’s Regional Director for Sustainable Development for Eastern and Southern Africa. Ms. Soliman has over 25 years of experience working on sustainable development issues at the World Bank, United Nations, and private sector, covering water, agriculture, environment, social and urban development, as well as cross cutting issues of climate change. In her current assignment, Ms. Soliman is in charge of setting the policy direction, fostering partnerships, and ensuring the integrated delivery of sustainable development programs in the 26 countries in the region. 

Stéphane Hallegatte is a Senior Climate Change Adviser at the World Bank. He joined the World Bank in 2012 after 10 years of academic research in environmental economics and climate science for Météo-France, the Centre International de Recherche sur l’Environnement et le Développement, and Stanford University. Mr. Hallegatte was a lead author of the 5th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). 

Reitumetse Molotsoane is the Head of Environment & Society at the National Business Initiative (South Africa). Ms. Molotsoane’s professional focus is on climate change in particular encompassing policy, strategy, and GHG inventories and accounting as well as low carbon technologies. She was formerly Director, Mitigation Response Analysis and Director, Climate Change Priority Programmes at the South African National Department Forestry, Fisheries, and Environment. She led the analysis and reporting of national mitigation actions to various audiences, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. She provided strategic and advisory services in the development and implementation of South Africa’s Climate Change Flagship Programmes. She holds an MSc from Imperial College, London. 

John Roome is Regional Director, South Asia Sustainable Development at the World Bank. Before that he was Senior Director for Climate Change. He joined the World Bank in 1989, working initially in Africa, and has since held various positions including Operations and Strategy Director for Global Practices and Cross Cutting Solutions, Director for Sustainable Development in the Bank’s East Asia and the Pacific Region, Operations and Strategy Director in the Bank’s South Asia region and as Operational Quality Director in the Bank’s Africa region.