Closing the Weather and Climate Data Gap for Effective Economic Decision-Making

Mari Pangestu is an Indonesian economist who has been Managing Director of Development Policy and Partnerships in the World Bank since 2020. She previously served as Minister of Trade in Indonesia from October 2004 to October 2011. Pangestu has had extensive policy-making experience in Indonesia. Following her period as Minister for Trade, in a cabinet reshuffle in October 2011 she was appointed to the newly created position of minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, a post she held until the term of the administration of president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono finished on 20 October 2014.

As Deputy Managing Director at the IMF, Mr. Bo Li is responsible for the IMF’s work on about 90 countries as well as on a wide range of policy issues. Before joining the IMF, Mr. Li worked for many years at the People’s Bank of China, most recently as Deputy Governor. He earlier headed the Monetary Policy, Monetary Policy II, and Legal and Regulation Departments, where he played an important role in the reform of state-owned banks, the drafting of China’s anti-money-laundering law, the internationalization of the renminbi, and the establishment of China’s macroprudential policy framework. Outside of the PBoC, Mr. Li served as Vice Mayor of Chongqing—China’s largest municipality, with a population of over 30 million—where he oversaw the city’s financial-sector development, international trade, and foreign direct investment.

Masyita Crystallin is currently serving as a Special Advisor to the Minister of the Finance Republic of Indonesia on Macroeconomic and Fiscal Policy, with diverse experience prior to joining the Finance Ministry. She is the Sherpa for the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action where the Indonesia’s Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati serves as co-chair together with Finance Minister of Finland and Indonesia Investment Authority’s spokesperson. At University of Indonesia, she serves as a Senior Researcher at the Demographic Institute.

Professor Petteri Taalas has been Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization—the United Nation’s specialized agency on weather, climate, and water—since 2016. A meteorologist by training, Professor Taalas advises the United Nations Secretary-General on climate change mitigation and adaptation. He is a leading advocate for increased investment in securing reliable data from all over the world for global, regional, and national forecasts and climate projections. He is spearheading a drive to ensure everyone on Earth is protected by early warning systems against increasingly extreme weather and climate change. 

Florian Pappenberger is the Director of Forecasts and Deputy Director General of the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. He is responsible for 24/7 weather forecast production, forecast quality control, development of novel forecast products, application of weather forecasts such as flood, drought, fire and health forecasts, development of software for numerical weather forecasts, sales of data, as well as public relations and training. Florian has experience in forecasting weather-related natural hazards such as floods, droughts, storms, wildfires and human health impacts. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Meteorological Society and a member of several other professional bodies including HEPEX, British Hydrological Society, EGU, AGU, EMS, AMS.

Dr Nirivololona Raholijaois the current Director General of Meteo Madagascar since February 2019 after having completed 30 years of service with the National Meteorological and Hydrological Service of Madagascar. She manages the overall operations. Before this function, she was successively head of the forecasting division, head of the operational meteorology department and director of research and development. She is also the permanent representative of Madagascar with WMO and the National IPCC Focal Point. In 2008, she was elected as the IPCC Working Group II Vice Chair for Africa region hence she was highly involved in the IPCC AR5. While the UNFCCC was at the negotiation stage, she was the head of Madagascar delegation during the sessions of the body and lead the ratification process of the convention by Madagascar in 1998.

Ms. Azucena María Arbeleche Perdomo is a Uruguayan economist, professor, and civil servant, serving as Ministry of Economy and Finance of Uruguay, the first woman to hold that office. She studied at the British Schools of Montevideo and graduated with a licentiate in economics from the Faculty of Economic Sciences and Administration of the University of the Republic in Uruguay. She earned a master's degree in applied macroeconomics at the Catholic University of Chile and was the director of the Debt Management Unit of Uruguay's Ministry of Economy and Finance from 2011 to 2014. Ms. Arbeleche was a professor at institutions such as the University of the Republic, the Catholic University of Uruguay, and the University of Montevideo.