Preety M. Bhandari joins Gold Standard Board of Directors

Ms. Bhandari is the Director for Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management Division of the Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department (SDCC) at ADB and also serves as Chief of Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management thematic group. She is responsible for providing policy and strategic direction to ADB’s initiatives on climate change and disaster risk management, including mobilizing concessional financing from multilateral funds such as the Climate Investment Funds (CIFs) and the Green Climate Fund (GCF). She also has an oversight on climate financing from ADB’s own resources including through investments in private sector.

Prior to joining ADB, she was heading the Finance, Technology and Capacity Building Program of the secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. She led the support to the international negotiations on climate finance, which culminated in the launch of GCF and the Standing Committee on Finance. Ms Bhandari coordinated the establishment of the Technology Mechanism under the Convention, which includes the Climate Technology Centre and Network. She has also worked as the Director of the Policy Analysis Division at TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute) in India.

She has over 30 years of experience in environment, climate change and sustainable development, having worked on projects across Asia, and in multicultural and diverse organizations. She is on the editorial board of Climate Policy and has in the past served as a member of the core group on climate change, established by the Government of India to assess India’s strategy for the UN climate change negotiations. She has also helped adjudicate for the Climate CoLab at MIT, which mobilizes and harnesses innovative ideas to address the challenge of climate change. She is currently advising initiatives led by the 2050 Pathways Platform. She is also a member of the Advisory Committee to the project on Mobilizing Development Finance being coordinated by the International Institute for Sustainable Development.

Ms Bhandari will serve on the Board of Directors’ Strategy and Outreach Committee. Gold Standard’s President, Yvo de Boer comments,

"We are fortunate to have Ms Bhandari’s expertise to support Gold Standard’s efforts to scale its approach to environmental integrity and strong sustainable development at the national and subnational level."

Ms Bhandari continues,

“As it becomes increasingly important that finance deployed for climate action achieves the greatest impact, I see a critical role for Gold Standard in mobilizing innovative financing mechanisms. I look forward to helping advance Gold Standard’s ambitious approach to accelerate progress toward the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals.”