Closing the gap between nature and climate: from Yerevan to Antalya

Date:: 5 November 2026, 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm
Venue:: Public webinar event, online only

Hosted by The Global School of Sustainability, Grantham Research Institute, CETEx and TPI Global Climate Transition Centre

Join us for this Global School of Sustainability (GSoS) hosted webinar reflecting on the outcomes of CBD COP17, Yerevan, Armenia, 19–30 October and how to align the nature and climate agendas looking ahead to COP31, Antalya, Türkiye, 9-20 November 2026.

This public webinar event is free and open to all. Register for the webinar here.

COP17 in Yerevan marks the first global review of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) since its adoption at COP15 in 2022 — the moment the world takes stock of whether collective action is on track to meet the 2030 targets. It also picks up two of the framework’s most consequential outstanding items: the resource mobilisation strategy needed to close the biodiversity finance gap, and the operationalisation of the Cali Fund, the first multilateral biodiversity fund designed to channel private-sector benefit-sharing from digital sequence information (DSI) into conservation.

COP31 in Antalya opens just ten days after COP17 closes. The biodiversity and climate policy processes still run largely as parallel tracks, with separate finance mechanisms and reporting cycles, and, too often, siloed discussions. What Yerevan delivers — and what the climate and nature agendas can concretely converge around — is the question this webinar sets out to answer.

Global School of Sustainability (GSoS) partners and representatives from affiliated research centres GRI, CETEx and TPI will be on the ground in Yerevan throughout the two-week negotiations. This webinar brings their assessment back to the GSoS network: what was actually agreed, what stalled, and what it means for closing the gap between the nature and climate agendas as the world’s attention moves from Yerevan to Antalya.

Meet the speakers and chair

Nicola Ranger is Executive Director of Earth Capital Nexus and Professor in Practice of Natural Capital, Risk and Finance in the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She leads interdisciplinary research and policy engagement at the nexus of finance, investment, natural capital, resilience and sustainable development with a global focus. Professor Ranger is a globally recognized expert in sustainable finance, climate and nature, and systemic resilience. Her research focuses on integrating climate and nature risks into financial decision-making.

Andrea Ledward, Director, International Biodiversity and Climate, is an experienced civil servant with over 20 years of public sector leadership across global environmental policy, development and social justice. She is currently the International Biodiversity and Climate Director at Defra and led the UK Government’s work on nature through the 2021 G7 and COP26 Presidencies. She is also responsible for CBD, CITES, UNEA and Ramsar negotiations, as well as Defra’s ODA spending. She was previously Defra’s domestic Natural Environment Director and Head of the Climate and Environment Department at DFID, where she managed a £3.87bn International Climate Finance portfolio across government. She was also head of DFID’s largest bilateral programme in Ethiopia and has previously managed HIV/AIDS programmes for Save the Children UK in Malawi and Zimbabwe and led Save the Children’s UK’s advocacy work on Iraq. She has significant overseas experience working with young people and indigenous communities. Prior to DFID, she spent eight years working domestically on social exclusion and community empowerment. Andrea is an anthropologist by training, educated at Oxford University and University College London, and was a Fulbright Scholar at Harvard University.

Elena Almeida, Senior Policy Fellow (Head of Nature), leads CETEx’s Nature work programme. She is a Senior Policy Fellow at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, which she joined in 2022. She was previously a Climate Advisor at the Bank of England, leading the central bank’s work on nature. She has spent almost 10 years in various policy-related roles, including working on monetary policy at the Central Bank of Malaysia and sustainable finance at the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Elena holds degrees in Economics from the University of Sussex and International Management from LSE.

Agata Makowska-Curran is a PhD Candidate in Environmental Economics at the LSE’s Department of Geography and Environment affiliated with the Grantham Research Institute and is funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Her primary research focus is on coastal and marine ecosystems, where she integrates geospatial data science methods and satellite imagery to address the multifaceted challenges of environmental conservation and sustainable development.

Laura Clavey is a Research Officer at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Laura splits her time across the Institute’s Adaptation team and the Earth Capital Nexus. Laura contributes to the EU’s Naturance project, exploring innovative insurance solutions for nature-based solutions, and the Zurich Climate Resilience Alliance (2025–2027), funded by the Z Zurich Foundation, leading LSE’s input on financing pathways for implementing nature-based adaptation and resilience interventions. Laura leads EarthCap’s research on the role of nature investments vehicles in scaling and mobilising private finance for investment in nature.

Camila Cristancho Duarte is a Policy Officer at the TPI Global Climate Transition Centre, working on the Assessing Sovereign Climate-related Opportunities and Risk (ASCOR) project. On secondment at the Grantham Research Institute, she researched private-sector incentives to fund multilateral biodiversity mechanisms, including the Cali Fund, on a project funded by the Global School of Sustainability. Previously, she worked with the Technical Secretariat of the UK’s Transition Plan Taskforce and spent four years advising financial companies and regulators in Latin America on low-carbon transition. She holds a Master’s in Public Policy from the University of Oxford and a Law Degree from Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá.

More information

The Global School of Sustainability at LSE (GSoS) is the interdisciplinary centre for sustainability research impact at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). GSoS works in partnerships to advance pioneering sustainability research, global policy engagement and world-leading educational opportunities. Grounded in LSE’s interdisciplinary excellence across the social sciences, GSoS’s global networks target the systemic challenges to sustainability embedded in the world’s economies, politics and societies.

The Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment was established in 2008 at the London School of Economics and Political Science. The Institute brings together international expertise on economics, as well as finance, geography, the environment, international development and political economy to establish a world-leading centre for policy-relevant research, teaching and training in climate change and the environment. It is hosted by the Global School of Sustainability at LSE and is funded by the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment.

Established in June 2022, the TPI Global Climate Transition Centre (TPI Centre) is an academic research centre at LSE dedicated to producing independent and forward-looking research and data on the progress of corporate and sovereign entities in the transition to a low-carbon economy. Its assessments use publicly disclosed information and its research outputs and datasets are publicly accessible.

The Centre for Economic Transition Expertise (CETEx) was established in 2024 at the London School of Economics and Political Science as a specialised research and policy centre to support the ambitious reforms required to deliver sustainable, inclusive and resilient economies and financial systems across Europe and emerging markets. The Centre is hosted by the Global School of Sustainability at LSE and has founding funding from the Sequoia Climate Foundation, ClimateWorks Foundation, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, Sunrise Project and European Climate Foundation.