Jane

Wilkinson

Principal and Head of Climate Change and Environment Practice, Abt Britain

Jane Wilkinson has 18 years of experience advising governments and organisations on strategies to implement climate action. She has served as an Australian diplomat and director of climate finance for the Australian Department of Climate Change. She coordinated Australia’s first international climate finance policies and led negotiation teams on climate finance, trade, and carbon markets. Jane played a key role influencing the design of the climate finance framework, including the USD 100 billion climate finance goal and the Green Climate Fund. She led research programmes at Climate Policy Initiative focused on aligning public and private interests in renewable energy and sustainable land use systems. She co-founded the Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance, which mobilised more than $2.5 billion for climate action in developing countries and convened governments, development finance institutions, project developers, and private investors to overcome green investment barriers.

Jane is Abt in Britain’s Senior Advisor for Climate Change, leading a growing team and portfolio of work in climate mitigation and adaptation, climate equity, and natural climate solutions. A published author on climate change and inequality in Commonwealth countries and climate finance solutions, she represents the company in high-level climate change fora and discussions.

Before joining Abt, Jane led the European Union’s €750 million Global Climate Change Alliance Plus (GCCA+) support facility of technical experts, providing technical assistance to more than 90 programmes in vulnerable developing countries. For example, in Namibia she worked with stakeholders to make off-grid solar energy accessible and affordable for poor rural and peri-urban communities. She also evaluated the impact and sustainability of GCCA+ sustainable land management programmes in Ethiopia and Rwanda. She worked for the Climate Policy Initiative, taking its climate finance programme from startup to the forefront of sustainable finance and green investment innovation and research. And she founded of She’s Epic Ltd. in the U.K., which provides climate change advisory services focused on empowering women as agents of social, economic, and environmental transformation.

Expertise:

Climate change policy
Sustainable investment
Strategy
Governance
Communications

Key Projects:

Building a Production & Protection Business Model for Sustainable Oil Palm in Indonesia
The Global Landscape of Climate Finance
The Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance
United Nations Secretary General’s Advisory Group on Climate Finance

Publications:

Wilkinson, J., (2021) ‘Building More Common-Wealth in a Climate-Changed World’, The Round Table Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs (forthcoming)
Wilkinson. J., (2017) Lessons and Innovations to Spur Green investment in Developing Countries, A CPI Report
Buchner B and Wilkinson J., (2015) ‘Pros and cons of alternative sources of climate change financing and prospects for ‘unconventional finance’, Towards a Workable and Effective Climate Regime, Scott Barrett, Carlo Carraro, Jaime de Melo, November 2015, pp483-496
Falconer. A., Parker. C., Keenleyside. P., Dontenville. A., Wilkinson, J., (2015) Three Tools to Unlock Finance for Land-use Mitigation and Adaptation, October 2015.
Rosenberg A., Wilkinson J., (2013) Lessons from the Kalimantan Forest and Climate Partnership: A San Giorgio Group Study., A CPI Report.