Walter Vergara
Colombia
Expertise:
Climate Change & Environment
Business & Industry
Senior Fellow
Walter Vergara is a climate specialist with longstanding interests in a variety of climate adaptation and mitigation topics. At the World Resources Institute (WRI), Vergara directs the 20x20 initiative—an ambitious, country-led land restoration effort aimed at reducing the carbon footprint of land use and land use change activities in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Before joining WRI, Vergara retired from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), where he was the division chief for climate change and sustainability. Before that, Vergara was at the World Bank for 25 years, where his last post was as leader of the global expert team on climate change.
Vergara has written or co-written 14 books and numerous technical articles. His last publication, “Agriculture and Climate: Systemic Impacts and Possible Responses,” was published as a discussion paper by the IDB. He also was a review editor in the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report.
Vergara is a chemical engineer by training with degrees from Universidad Nacional de Colombia and Cornell University.