Climate Change

Martina Macpherson is Senior Vice President, Strategic Engagement & Partnerships, at Moody’s MIS Assessments Group (MISA) in London. Martina is responsible for Moody’s ESG outreach and engagement across the finance and policy stakeholder community globally, for developing a commercial partnering strategy to drive revenue growth and for defining its ESG vision and mission as a thought leader. Martina held a number of ESG leadership roles including Head of ESG Research and Index Products at S&P DJI, Managing Director of Sustainable Investments Partners Ltd. and Vice President of ESG Research and Ratings Products at MSCI. Martina has a vast range of experience in the ESG, index and asset management industry where she has been a member of regulatory, policy and (sustainable) finance management associations, networks and government-backed working groups at the UK, EU and international level. Martina is a visiting fellow in sustainable finance at University of Zurich and Henley Business School. She is a fellow member of the ICRS, and an alumni of the German National Academic Foundation. Martina has an MBA certificate in finance and business from LSBF / UK, and a MA in Law and Human Sciences from University of Frankfurt / Germany.

Martina is responsible for Moody’s ESG outreach and engagement across the finance and policy stakeholder community globally, for developing a commercial partnering strategy to drive revenue growth and for defining its ESG vision and mission as a thought leader.

Margarita V. Alario, PhD is Professor of Environmental Studies and Sociology at the University of Wisconsin, Whitewater, WI., USA. She is the author of multiple peer-reviewed articles in multidisciplinary journals. She is a Fulbright Scholar, and has been the recipient of several national and international awards and grants

Atoms for Peace

Sandisiwe N. Ncemane holds an Electrical Engineering degree from the University of Cape Town (UCT), with a Masters in Engineering Management from the University of Pretoria. At the Goaga Development Corporation (CDC), she is responsible for promoting investment in Power Generation and Manufacturing Projects, including Gas, Nuclear, Wind and Solar related enemy projects. She is currently the President of the Nuclear Industry Association of South Africa (NIASA),

Manufacturing Projects, including Gas, Nuclear, Wind and Solar related enemy projects.

Highly qualified and experienced executive offering 14+ years of subject matter expertise creating right value propositions for analytics and AI. He is managing AI and analytics delivery practice for EMEA south at SAS. In this 'think-tank' role he brides the gap between business development, analytical & risk capabilities, seeking to convert analytical thinking into successful business strategies.

His broad expertise lies in the enabling organizations in applications of data and text mining, Analytics & AI. Apart from his 15+ years of applied analytics experience across industries, he has been working on several other issues such as climate change and global warming, blockchain, internet of things, and cloud. He has presented his work in invited seminars in several places.

Ali CHEKNANE is a full-Professor at the Amar Telidji University of Laghouat-Algeria. He has completed his PhD in physics. Ali is having 20 years teaching graduate and post-graduate teaching experience at the university as temporary, associated and permanent position. He has published many papers in various journals and conference proceedings on renewable energy subjects. He published more than 50 journal papers, did more than 40 conference presentations and served as an editorial board member for several technical and organizing committees for international conferences. He has many years’ experience of supervising several postgraduate and graduate students. He got an incentive award from “Centre de Development des Energies Renouvelables- CDER”. He was awarded for the best publication in physics in Algeria from the ANDRU agency in 2008. He is the Head of the research team: “Photovoltaic Systems & Devices” at the Laboratory of Semiconductors and Functional Materials. He is a reviewer in many Journals as: Solar Energy, Conversion Energy and Management Journal; Electronics Journal, International Journal of Engineering Innovations and Research, Measurement and International Journal of Electronics…etc. Ali CHEKNANE is the Dean of the Faculty of Technology at Amar Telidji University of Laghouat- Algeria.

An innovative method based on satellite image analysis to check fault in a PV system lead-acid battery, Simulation Modelling Practice and Theory, Simulation and modelling of charge transport in dye-sensitized solar cells based on carbon nano-tube electrodes+

Geoffrey Mukwada is an Associate Professor in Environmental Geography and is based at the University of the Free State in South Africa. Professor Mukwada’s research primarily revolves around natural resource management, climate change and rural livelihoods. He has published more than thirty papers in accredited journals. He is the founding coordinator of the Afromontane Research Unit (ARU) at the University of the Free State and is the leader of the University Staff Doctoral Programme (USDP).

Natural Resource Management, Climate Change and Rural Livelihoods

Akinola Afolarin, LL.B, BL. is the Managing Partner of McAlpha Attorneys, a full-service Law Firm based in Abuja, Nigeria. He is an astute advocate with vast experience in general legal practice and bias for Energy and Climate Change Law. He is passionate about the environment especially in the areas of Energy and Climate Change as well as the legal regime regulating them. His immediate focus is intensive research into the imminent dangers which Climate Change poses to our world with particular focus on the continent of Africa. Akinola is primarily interested in employing the instrumentality of the law to rescue our planet from the catastrophic effect of Climate Change. To this extent, he is currently conducting research into several legal documents on the subject from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change otherwise known as Kyoto Protocol of 1992 to the more recent 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change with a bid to making our Planet a safer place for all.

“Climate Change and Africa: A Critical Examination of the Continent’s Preparedness for the Imminent Impacts of Global Warming and Other Changes in Climate.”