Paul Smith

Physical Climate Risks and Climate Adaptation Lead - UNEP-FI

Paul Smith has led the climate change adaptation and physical risk programme at the United Nations’ Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) for over seven years. This supports commercial banks through the Principles for Responsible Banking, development finance institutions through the Investors Resilience Challenge (IRC) and wider engagement with the finance sector through UNEP FI’s Adaptation Community of Practice and the UNEP FI Risk Centre. He has co-authored several publications on climate risk and adaptation, including The Climate Risk Landscape, Physically Fit?, Adapting to a New Climate, PRB Climate Adaptation Target Setting, and the PRB’s Practical Guidance on Implementing Adaptation and Resilience for Banks.

Before joining UNEP FI, Paul worked as an engineer focusing on hydroelectricity and flood risk management, before leading the European Union’s cooperation programme on infrastructure, energy and the environment in Liberia and Somalia. This background has given him an intimate understanding of the energy transition and climate change impacts in the field, and particularly how they affect vulnerable communities. Paul is a graduate of Imperial College London, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) and the London School of Economics.