Walter Vergara

Walter Vergara is a climate specialist with long-standing interests in a variety of adaptation and mitigation topics. As a senior fellow at the World Resources Institute, Mr. Vergara directs the 20x20 initiative a country-led land restoration effort aimed at substantially contributing to a reduction in the carbon footprint of land use and land use change activities in the Latin America and Caribbean region and capture additional benefits. He also acted as a senior adviser to the Director of UNEP-DTU for purposes of preparation of the Zero Carbon Study. Prior to joining WRI, Mr. Vergara retired from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) where he was the Division Chief for Climate Change and Sustainability. Before that and during 25 years Mr. Vergara was at the World Bank where his last post was as leader of the Global Expert Team on Climate Change. Mr. Vergara organized and led the first climate change team in Latin America, at the World Bank. During his career Mr. Vergara has authored or co-authored 14 books and numerous technical articles. He was a review editor in the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report. Mr. Vergara is a Chemical Engineer by training with degrees from Universidad Nacional de Colombia and Cornell University.