From Climate Science to Action

Dr. Alan S. Miller has established himself as a leading authority on climate finance and policy through a distinguished career spanning more than three decades. After earning his A.B. in Government from Cornell University (1971) and both J.D. and M.P.P. from the University of Michigan (1974), he has shaped global environmental policy through various influential roles. His 16-year tenure with the World Bank Group included serving as Principal Climate Change Specialist at the International Finance Corporation and Climate Change Team Leader at the Global Environment Facility, where he managed over $1 billion in clean energy projects across 70 developing countries. His academic contributions include founding the Center for Global Change at the University of Maryland (1989-96) and teaching at prestigious institutions including Duke, Michigan, and Vermont Law School. As a Fulbright Scholar in both Australia (1977) and Japan (1987), he has brought international perspective to environmental policy. Currently, he continues to consult for major organizations including UNDP, US AID, and ADB, while contributing to environmental law literature through his widely-used textbook and numerous publications on climate change, energy, and development.

Claudia Barrera serves as Senior Carbon Finance Specialist in the Climate Group at the World Bank, where she has established herself as a leading expert in results-based finance for climate mitigation projects. After earning her MSc in Environmental Management from Yale University's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and an MSc in Environmental and Resource Economics from Universidad de Los Andes/University of Maryland, she has built an impressive career in carbon finance and climate policy. Since joining the World Bank in 2009, she has been instrumental in operationalizing over 40 projects worldwide, generating more than 4.5 MtCO2 emission reduction credits under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Her expertise spans private sector CDM project implementation in Latin America and academic work as an economics professor at Universidad Autonoma de Manizales in Colombia. Through her work with the Results Based Finance Facilities Team, she continues to advance innovative financing mechanisms for climate change mitigation, while sharing her knowledge through the Coursera course "From Climate Science to Action."