Fostering Sustainable Transitions: The World Bank-KDI Green Growth Seminar 2024

Richard Damania is the Chief Economist of the Sustainable Development Practice Group, effective March 1, 2020. He has held several positions in the World Bank including as Senior Economic Advisor in the Water Practice, Lead Economist in the Africa Region’s Sustainable Development Department, in the South Asia and Latin America and Caribbean Regions of the World Bank. His work has spanned multiple sectors and has helped the World Bank become an acknowledged thought leader on matters relating to environment, water, and the economy. Prior to joining the World Bank, he was a Professor of Economics at the University of Adelaide. He has published extensively with over 100 papers in scientific journals, has held numerous advisory positions with governments and in international organizations, and serves on the Editorial Board of several prestigious scientific journals.

Executive Director from Korea since November 2022. Prior to joining the WBG Board, Mr. Park held several senior positions in the Ministry of Economy and Finance, including Deputy Minister for International affairs; Director General, International Economic Affairs Bureau; Director General, Development Finance Bureau; Policy Advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister; Director General, Policy Planning Bureau; Deputy Director General, Innovation and Start up Team; Director General, Trace Policy Team and Director, Job Policy Team (2017-2022). He was also a Senior Advisor to the Executive Director, Asia and the Pacific Office at the International Monetary Fund (2015-2017). Earlier in his career, Mr. Park worked as Assistant Secretary to the President for International Economy, Office of the President, Republic of Korea and other various positions in the Ministry of Economy and Finance (1994-2008/ 2012-2015). Mr. Park graduated from Seoul National University in economics and obtained master’s degree in International Development Policy from Duke University.

Jongkyu Lee is a Senior Vice President at the Korea Development Institute (KDI). He joined KDI in 2013 after working at the Samsung Economic Research Institute (SERI) from 2008 to 2013, focusing on North Korean economic research. Prior to his current role, he served as the Editor-in-Chief at KDI from 2021 to 2022. He earned his doctorate from the University of London (UCL) in 2008. His research primarily focuses on the current macroeconomic situation of North Korea and its special trade relationship with China. His current interests include understanding the impact of sanctions, fiscal capacity, dollarization, and demographic change on the North Korean economy and its policy responses. Additionally, he maintains an interest in analyzing South Korea's fiscal management within the defense, diplomacy, and unification sectors.

Jungwook Kim is a Senior Fellow and Executive Director at the Center for International Development (CID) of Korea Development Institute (KDI).

An economist by training, he received M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison after receiving his B.A. from Seoul National University. Since joining KDI in 2007, he has accumulated diverse experience in both policy research and project management. He published books and papers on the regulatory and public investment issues in Korea and abroad. He had also held the position in KDI first as Director of Department of Industry and Competition Policy and then as Director and Vice-President of Center of Regulatory Studies.

He has ample experience in providing policy advisory services, serving as advisory committee member of the various ministries of Korea, and participating as a consultant in partner governments' collaborative research and consultation projects. Currently, he is responsible for designing, executing, and delivering the Knowledge Sharing Program (KSP) and other development cooperation projects with multiple partners, including Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), UN agencies, and partner governments.

Kevin Carey is Climate Economics Program Manager in the World Bank’s Equitable Growth, Finance, and Institutions Practice Group. Prior to this role, he was an adviser on global and regional macroeconomic issues, covering debt sustainability globally and macroeconomic challenges of various countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Previously, he was a Practice Manager for Macroeconomics in the MENA region and Lead Economist covering East Africa and the Horn. He is a co-author of the 2018 edition of World Bank report The Changing Wealth of Nations.

He has a Ph.D. (Economics) from Princeton University (1996) and a B.A. (Economics) from Trinity College Dublin (1988).

Hyunseok Kim is a Research Fellow at KDI. He currently serves as the Director of the Public Investment Evaluation Division at the Public and Private Infrastructure Investment Management Center (PIMAC), KDI, where various feasibility studies are conducted on government investment projects. He also serves as an advisory member at the Energy and Industry Transition Sub-commission of the Presidential Commission on Carbon Neutrality and Green Growth and worked in the Technical Working Group for the "2050 Carbon Neutrality Scenario" from 2020 to 2021. His research interests lie in environmental and energy economics, public economics, and law and economics, with an emphasis on climate change mitigation policies, land development, and compensation for land acquisition. He earned his Ph.D. in Economics from Iowa State University.

Nancy Lozano Gracia is the Lead Economist for Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, with over 20 years of experience in economic policy and research. She is also the co-lead for the Global Solutions Group on Spatial and Territorial Development. Nancy joined the Bank in 2009 and has worked extensively on designing and delivering major operationally relevant analytical pieces across all regions. Some of her recent work includes analysis at the intersection of pollution and competitiveness in cities with a focus on Africa, analysis on urban inequality in Mexico and Colombia, and ongoing work to help countries reorient their productive capacity to become more environmentally friendly and inclusive. She has worked extensively on designing and using diagnostic tools to improve the understanding of sustainable development challenges and help identify priorities for action. She holds a doctorate in applied economics from University of Illinois and masters in environmental and agricultural and resource economics from University of Maryland and Universidad de los Andes, Colombia.

Mark Roberts is a Lead Urban Economist with the World Bank’s Urban, Resilience and Land Global Practice, and the Bank’s Global Co-Lead for Urban & Spatial Economics and Analytics. He is a lead author of the Bank’s recently launched Sustainable Development Flagship report, Thriving: Making Cities Green, Resilient and Inclusive in a Changing Climate, as well as of regional Flagship reports on urbanization for both South Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean. Mark has also worked on the East Asia and Pacific, Europe and Central Asia, Middle East and North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa regions, and acts as an advisor to Bank teams working on the analysis of processes of urban and spatial development. Mark has published more than thirty papers in peer-reviewed academic journals and edited book volumes. Prior to joining the World Bank, he was an Assistant Professor of spatial economics at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Murray Edwards College, Cambridge. Mark holds a PhD in Land Economy and an MA in Economics from the University of Cambridge, UK, as well as an MSc in Economics from Warwick University, UK.

Stefanie Onder is an assistant professor at the School of International Service (SIS) at American University. Her research interests fall at the intersection of development economics and environmental economics. In particular, she analyzes the trade-offs between economic development and sustainability, at the household and economy-wide levels. She also has an active research program in the economics of conflict and forced displacement, focusing primarily on the impacts of the Syrian conflict. Prior to coming to SIS, Professor Onder worked at the World Bank, where she focused on key development issues in natural resource management with an emphasis on wealth and natural capital accounting, livelihoods of the natural resource-dependent poor as well as climate mitigation and adaptation. She holds a PhD in Economics from the London School of Economics.

Jason Russ is a Senior Economist in the Office of the Chief Economist of the Sustainable Development Practice at the World Bank. His professional interests center on using econometrics and data analytics to diagnose development challenges, and quantify the economic and social impacts of environmental challenges. His tenure at the World Bank includes five years in the Water Global Practice where he helped to develop and coordinate the analytical work program of the Economics Global Solutions Group, including authoring many of its global flagship reports. He has authored numerous publications in academic journals largely related to environmental and development economics. Prior to joining the World Bank he was an analyst at PricewaterhouseCoopers. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from George Washington University.

Yeochang Yoon holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Ohio State University. Currently, he is as a Research Fellow at Department of Industry and Market Policies at the Korea Development Institute (KDI). Also he serves a member of the Expert Committee on Reduction Policies at the Presidential Commission on Carbon Neutrality and Green Growth since January 2023. His research areas encompass Microeconomic Theory, Behavioral Economics, and Energy & Environmental Economics.

Saskia de Vries is the practice manager for Financial Stability and Integrity at the World Bank, which supports EMDE financial sector authorities around the world in implementing global regulatory and supervisory standards, cutting-edge best practices and frameworks, a.o. to manage climate and environmental risk and stimulate green finance: through diagnostics, technical assistance and lending, and research and knowledge. She was previously head of International Financial Architecture at the Dutch Central Bank and co-chair of the NGFS Task Force on Nature-related Risks. Saskia holds a PhD in financial economics.

Ian Parry is the Principal Environmental Fiscal Policy Expert in the Climate Policy Division of the IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department. Previously he held the Allen Kneese Chair in Environmental Economics at Resources for the Future. He has a PhD in economics from the University of Chicago in 1993. Parry’s research focuses on country-level analysis of comprehensive mitigation strategies and their broader fiscal and economic impacts. Parry also quantifies the broader environmental (e.g., local air pollution) costs of fossil fuel use at the country level and efficient levels of fuel prices needed to reflect supply and environmental costs.

Seoyi Kim is a climate finance specialist in the Carbon Markets and Innovation unit in the Climate Change Group. Her work at the World Bank focuses on the development of the next generation of carbon markets through providing analytical support for Article 6 piloting activities under the Networked Carbon Markets initiative and the Climate Warehouse program. As part of this work, she is involved in developing rating processes for independent assessment entities and supports developing Article 6 Approach Papers. Before joining the World Bank, she has worked as a financial analyst at solar energy companies. She holds a Master’s degree from the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University with concentrations in International Economics and Energy, Resources and Environment.

Esha Zaveri is a Senior Economist in the Office of the Chief Economist of the Sustainable Development Practice at the World Bank. Before this, she was a senior economist at the World Bank's Water Global Practice and a core team member of the Water, Economics, and Climate Change Global Solutions Group. Her work centers around water resource management, climate impacts, and environmental health and spans from global to region- and country-level assessments in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. She has published on these topics in leading scientific journals and authored numerous flagship reports of the World Bank. Before joining the World Bank, she was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University's Center on Food Security and the Environment, where she remains an affiliated scholar.

Heehyun Rosa Lim is an Associate Research Fellow at the Department of Industry and Market Policies at the Korea Development Institute (KDI). She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Maryland. Her expertise lies in the fields of International Trade and Environmental Economics.

Ashesh Prasann is a Senior Agriculture Economist in the Office of Global Director for Agriculture and Food Global Practice (AGF GP). He is currently working on climate mitigation through the food system and repurposing of agriculture support policies and programs. Previously, Ashesh has authored major analytical pieces, including WB flagship reports on Future of Food: Shaping the Food System to Deliver Jobs and Scaling up Disruptive Agricultural Technologies in Africa. He has also led investment and advisory teams in Africa and Latin America. Ashesh holds a PhD in Agricultural and Food Resource Economics from Michigan State University, MPP from the University of Chicago, and BS in Economics and International Studies from Trinity College.

Dr. Hyungna Oh is the Chair of Advisory Committee on Korea’s Green New Deal appointed by Ministry of Economy and Finance (MOEF) of Korea. She is also Professor of economics in the College of International Studies at Kyung Hee University, with expertise in the areas of climate change and environmental economics. Before she joined Kyung Hee University, she had served as Fellow at the Korea Development Institute (KDI) and Assistant Professor of Economics at West Virginia University in the USA. Dr. Oh assisted the Korean government to design climate policies. Her works have appeared in various academic journals including Climate Policy and the Economics Letters. Dr. Oh currently serves as a member of the National Research Foundation, the Division chair of Policy Advisory Committee for Korea’s Green New Deal, a member of National Economic Advisory Council and other committees. Dr. Oh received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Korea University, and her Ph.D. from Cornell University.

Gracelin Baskaran is the research director and senior fellow for the Energy Security and Climate Change Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). She is a mining economist, and her primary expertise is in critical minerals, trade, and emerging markets. Prior to joining CSIS, she spent seven years in South Africa working on the platinum group metals sector and later joining the World Bank, where she coauthored the book Africa’s Resource Future: Harnessing Natural Resources for Economic Transformation during the Low-Carbon Transition. She has also held academic positions at the University of Cambridge, University of London, and University of Cape Town. Dr. Baskaran has been cited as an expert in the Washington Post, Politico, Fox, Bloomberg, Foreign Policy, Voice of America, Energy Intelligence, and the U.S. International Trade Commission, among others. She holds a doctorate from the University of Cambridge.