EXPERT, COP27: Expert on politics of climate change, financial risk, and global development

Leigh Johnson is an economic and human environment geographer with specialties in the politics of climate change, financial risk, and global development. She has published extensively on the relationship between climate change and financial risk, and the global development sector’s turn to risk management and insurance. She has contributed to national and international expert conversations on managed retreat, loss mitigation, disaster risk and resilience, and green climate finance.

Quote on COP27:

“The past year has exacerbated the deep inequities between people and places that are more or less able to cope with climate impacts. This year we witnessed growing debt traps in countries devastated by extreme climate events, from protracted extreme drought in East Africa to flooding in Pakistan. COP negotiations on Loss & Damage have sidelined countries’ original demands for reparation and compensation in favor of loans and “climate risk insurance”. Insurance is not a substitute for repair. More than ever, vulnerable countries need unrestricted grant funding, not loans or insurance, to shore up gaps in social provisioning and capacity.”