Former head of the European Investment Bank’s environmental division, Christopher Knowles is a longtime leading figure in climate and environmental finance. For eleven years, he led the Bank’s operational team handling investments in equity and debt funds for infrastructure and environment, throughout which the EIB scaled up and innovated its contributions to climate finance.

With a background in development economics and finance, project finance, PPPs and crediting, he developed an interest to tackle environmental issues since the 1980s. He has held positions in supervising and advisory bodies of many clean energy, environmental, infrastructure and carbon funds and is currently working to promote business and consumption practices that support biodiversity conservation, sustainable resource use, climate change mitigation and adaptation. He is also advising the World Agroforestry Centre DG on financing issues for agro-forestry.