Aloke Barnwal

Aloke joined the GEF Programs Unit in May 2018 as Senior Climate Change Specialist to work on sustainable cities and climate change adaptation programs. He is a climate change and public policy professional with 15 years of hands-on experience in climate change mitigation and adaptation, natural resources management, and sustainable livelihoods in developing and least developed countries. During his career, Aloke has extensively worked in non-profit, private sector and donor organizations on a wide range of environmental and development issues at grassroots as well as national and regional policy levels. Prior to joining GEF, he worked as climate and environment adviser at the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) in India where he was leading a $30m portfolio of climate resilience and urban technical assistance programs. Prior to DFID, Aloke worked on USAID-funded $20m renewable energy deployment technical assistance program in India as renewable energy policy specialist. Aloke has worked extensively in South Asian countries including India, Bhutan, Nepal, and Lao PDR on formulating climate change policies, accessing climate finance and developing innovative technology solutions to climate change challenges. Aloke led the technical assistance to India to register its first Green Climate Fund (GCF) project and to Bhutan in preparing their Technology Needs Assessment (TNA) report on climate change.

Aloke is a Ford Foundation Fellow and holds a master’s degree in Public Affairs from Indiana University, Bloomington, United States, and a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College, West Bengal, India.