Emily McKenzie

Emily has worked extensively on integrating nature in policy, finance, economics and decision-making.  

Her recent work has focused on assessment, management and disclosure of nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities by corporates and financial institutions. This has included research and development of guidance and standards on risk assessment, scenario analysis, engagement with Indigenous Peoples, Local Communities and affected stakeholders, target-setting, transition planning, value chain assessments and specific sectors and biomes.  

Emily’s previous work includes applied environmental and ecological economics, including cost-benefit analysis, environmental valuation, ecosystem service modelling and mapping, and the use of this information in policy and decision making, including public subsidy reform, spatial planning, natural capital accounting and payments for ecosystem services. 

Background

Emily has worked as the Technical Director at the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) Secretariat since it launched in 2021. She led the technical development of the TNFD framework for nature-related assessment, management and disclosure by corporates and financial institutions. 

In 2026, Emily supported ISSB standard setting on nature-related disclosures, drawing on the TNFD framework, as an ISSB Technical Fellow. 

Prior to joining TNFD, Emily led the analytical team based at HM Treasury that produced the Dasgupta Review on the Economics of Biodiversity. and led the UK government response to the Review. 

Emily was seconded to the Capitals Coalition where she helped develop the Natural Capital Protocol.  

Emily worked for a decade in the WWF Global Science team, where she helped establish and lead the Natural Capital Project at Stanford University.  

She helped design and built the business case for the Environmental Land Management scheme in England – a major national agricultural subsidy reform programme – based at the UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).  

Other previous roles included establishing environmental economics programmes at the Joint Nature Conservation Committee and the Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission as an Overseas Development Institute Fellow.  

Emily holds a Masters degree in International Policy, Stanford University and Bachelors degree in Economics, University of Cambridge.