Soenke Kreft leads the work of Munich Climate Insurance Initiative (MCII) which is hosted at United Nations University – Institute for Environmental and Human Security (UNU-EHS). He oversees the policy engagement and public sector strategy work to promote and improve risk sharing and risk transfer schemes for the benefit of climate impacted people and communities.
Mr. Kreft for his entire career has been deeply engaged in international climate policy and sustainability processes, having led the Climate Policy Team at the German NGO Germanwatch from 2013-2016. This allowed him to provide major input to the Paris Agreement (UNFCCC) and also contribute to other initiatives, such as the G7 InsuResilience.
Prior to his role as Executive Director, Mr. Kreft was familiar with MCII for many years; he participated in the first phase of MCII’s project “Climate Risk Adaptation and Insurance in the Caribbean” in 2011, and was responsible for a large capacity development and agenda-setting programme with the Least Developed Countries group on climate-induced Loss and Damage, which in turn provided the rationale to launch the UNFCCC loss and damage thematic work and subsequent initiatives, such as G7 InsuResilience and the G20-V20 Global Partnership for Climate and Disaster Risk Finance.
See Sönke's profile on the UNU-EHS WEBSITE.
Prof. Hoeppe joined the Munich Reinsurance Company in 2004. He was appointed Head of the Geo Risks Research Department in January 2005 and retired from his post in 2017.
Before joining Munich Re Prof. Hoeppe has worked in different institutes at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich and as a post doc at Yale University (USA). Most time of his university career Prof. Hoeppe spent at the Insitute of Bioclimatology and Applied Meteorology and the Institute of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. His academic education is in meteorology (Masters and PhD) and human biology (PhD).
His main areas of research are effects of atmospheric processes (heat/cold, UV radiation, air pressure fluctuations) and air pollutants (ozone, particles) on humans and the general assessment of environmental risks.
Prof. Hoeppe is scientific member of many scientific societies, from 1999 to 2002 he has been the President of the International Society of Biometeorolgy. He has held different expert functions in WHO and WMO. In 2007 Dr. Hoeppe has been appointed member of the Global Warming Advisory Board of the Bavarian State Government and Chair of the “Finance-Forum: Climate Change” of the high-tech Strategy of the German Federal Government. In July 2008 he has been awarded the Bavarian State Medal on merits for the environment.
Christoph Bals is the Executive Director Policy of the NGO Gemanwatch, of which he is a founding member (1991). He was among the initiators of European Business Council for Sustainable Energy, the pro-Kyoto-campaign "e-mission55", and the initiative for climate consicous flying "atmosfair". He has been on the board of the "Foundation for Sustainability" since 1998. He is one of the three NGO-representatives in the German government's working group on emission trading since 1998; and a member of the advisory group of most ambitious German green investment index (NAI); in 2003 and 2004 he was in the National Advisory Committee for the Renewables 2004. Bals headed different successful campaigns (Rio Konkret, Climate Responsibility Campaign).