One week after the COP26 summit concludes, we take a look back and a look ahead and ask the question: Was COP26 a success from an Indo-Pacific perspective? Which commitments are key to the Indo-Pacific’s quest for net zero? And now that COP26 is over, what are the next most urgent actions which countries will need to take to fulfil those commitments?

In the fourth and final episode of the Climate Change in the Indo-Pacific series, we are joined by several international experts and analysts who will assess the outcomes of COP26 and the implications for the Indo-Pacific region, taking mitigation, adaptation, finance and collaboration – the four declared goals of COP26 – as a basis for their discussion.

“Climate Change in the Indo-Pacific” is a four-part series by Asia Society Switzerland and Swiss Re Institute exploring the effects of climate change on the Indo-Pacific and the world.

The Honorable Kevin Rudd AC
President and CEO, Asia Society; President, Asia Society Policy Institute

Kevin Rudd became president and CEO of Asia Society in January 2021 and has been president of the Asia Society Policy Institute since January 2015. He served as Australia's 26th Prime Minister from 2007 to 2010, then as Foreign Minister from 2010 to 2012, before returning as Prime Minister in 2013.

As Prime Minister, Rudd led Australia's response during the Global Financial Crisis. Australia's fiscal response to the crisis was reviewed by the IMF as the most effective stimulus strategy of all member states. Australia was the only major advanced economy not to go into recession. Rudd is also internationally recognized as one of the founders of the G20, which drove the global response to the crisis and in 2009 helped prevent the crisis from spiralling into a second global depression.

As Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Rudd was active in global and regional foreign policy leadership. He was a driving force in expanding the East Asia Summit (EAS) to include both the U.S. and Russia in 2010. He also initiated the concept of transforming the EAS into a wider Asia-Pacific community to help manage deep-rooted tensions in Asia by building over time the institutions and culture of common security in Asia. On climate change, Rudd ratified the Kyoto Protocol in 2007 and legislated in 2008 for a mandatory 20 percent renewable energy target for Australia. Rudd launched Australia's challenge in the International Court of Justice with the objective of stopping Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean. Rudd drove Australia's successful bid for its current non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council and oversaw the near-doubling of Australia's foreign aid budget.

Rudd is Chair of the Board of the International Peace Institute. He is a member of the IMF Managing Director’s External Advisory Group and the Global Leadership Council for Sanitation and Water for All. He is a Senior Fellow at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, a Distinguished Fellow at Chatham House in London, a Distinguished Statesman with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC, and a Distinguished Fellow at the Paulson Institute in Chicago. Rudd is a member of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization’s Group of Eminent Persons. He serves on the International Advisory Board of the Schwarzman Scholars program at Tsinghua University. Rudd is proficient in Mandarin Chinese. He remains actively engaged in indigenous reconciliation.

Andreas Berger
Chief Executive Officer Corporate Solutions

Andreas Berger started his insurance career in 1995 as a leadership trainee at Gerling Group, followed by various leadership positions at Boston Consulting Group. He returned to Gerling in 2004 as Head of Commercial Business and International Programs and Affinity Business.

When Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty SE (AGCS) was created in 2006, Andreas Berger became its Global Head of Market Management & Communication, where he established an overall market management function for the corporate client segment and served as AGCS spokesperson. In 2009, he was appointed AGCS Chief Executive Officer, Regional Unit London with responsibility for UK, Ireland, South Africa, the Middle East and Benelux.

In 2011 Andreas Berger joined the AGCS Board of Management as Chief Regions & Market Officer (Central & Eastern Europe, Mediterranean, Africa and Asia). In addition, he assumed responsibility for the Global Broker Channel Distribution for the Allianz Group.

Andreas Berger joined Swiss Re in March 2019 as Chief Executive Officer Corporate Solutions and member of the Group Executive Committee.

Prof. Dr. David N. Bresch
Professor for Weather and Climate Risks at ETH Zürich/MeteoSwiss

Prof. Dr. David N. Bresch has been Professor for Weather and Climate Risks at ETH Zürich/MeteoSwiss since 2016. Between 2000-2016, his roles at Swiss Re included Head Business Development, Global Head Sustainability, Head Atmospheric Perils Group and Chief modeler for natural catastrophe risk assessment. From 1998-1999 he was Research Associate at MIT, Cambridge, USA. He was Member of the Swiss UNFCCC delegation from 2009-2012 and in 2015, member of the Private Sector Advisory Group of the UN Green Climate Fund (GCF), and from 2014-2016, senior advisor for innovative finance since 2017 at Rockefeller Foundation. Prof. Bresch holds a PhD in physics from ETH Zurich, Switzerland. His research focuses on the impacts of weather and climate on socio-economic systems. Combining numerical modelling of weather and climate risks with the engagement of decision makers and end-users, his research aims to explore ways to strengthen resilience based on a shared understanding of their weather and climate susceptibility. Such an integrated view along the chain of impacts also opens new perspectives to the treatment of uncertainty in decision-making.

Sophia Hamblin Wang
Cleantech COO, circular economy expert, speaker, university lecturer and diversity advocate

Sophia Hamblin Wang is a cleantech COO, circular economy expert, speaker, university lecturer and diversity advocate. She is the Chief Operating Officer of Mineral Carbonation International (MCi), a technology platform that transforms CO2 into building materials and other valuable industrial products.

Sophia grew up in Far North Queensland and completed a Bachelor of International Business with First Class Honours at the ANU College of Business and Economics. She is Co-founding Director of CO2 Value Australia, a member of the Australian Capital Territory Climate Change Council and a board member of the Climate Ready Initiative.

Sophia is also a Lecturer at the University of Sydney Business School and was awarded Resource Innovator of the Year at the New Materials Summit in Berlin in 2018. Sophia has been featured in ABC TV’s Q&A, The New York Times, Time Magazine, TEDx, The Australian Newspaper’s The Deal Magazine and was a delegate at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2020, WEF Pioneers of Change Summit 2021 and the UN Youth Climate Summit in New York 2019. Sophia was also an Australian Delegate to the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in India in 2017. Sophia is a Global Shaper Alumni, has an Australian Red Cross long-service medal and was awarded an Order of Australia Student Citizenship Award for work in aged care, sustainability, diversity and inclusion.

Veronica Scotti
Chairperson Public Sector Solutions

Veronica Scotti was appointed Chairperson Public Sector Solutions (PSS) in July 2018. PSS is committed to helping national, provincial and municipal governments, public entities as well as international organisations develop innovative risk transfer solutions to strengthen societal resilience, both in advanced and developing economies. It promotes financial inclusion by improving access to insurance for risk-exposed low-income communities.

Veronica joined Swiss Re in 1999 through the group acquisition of Fox-Pitt Kelton, a boutique investment bank in London. She gained her reinsurance experience following her move to Zurich in 2002, with roles in asset management, strategy, risk management and products. From 2007 to 2010 she held client-facing positions in Zurich, as Head of Business Development EMEA and Key Account Manager Globals. before moving to New York to become Client Executive, MD, with global responsibility for some of Swiss Re’s largest clients. In 2015 Veronica was appointed President and CEO of Canada and the English Caribbean based in Toronto.

Prior to joining Swiss Re, Veronica worked in investment banking in the UK, Switzerland and Italy with Banque Paribas, Union Bank of Switzerland and Banco di Napoli.

She holds an MBA from the SDA Bocconi School of Management in Milan, and a master's degree in International Commerce from the Naval University Institute, Naples, Italy.

Further experts will be announced soon.