Nicola Ranger

Professor Nicola Ranger is Executive Director of Earth Capital Nexus and Professor in Practice of Natural Capital, Risk and Finance in the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She leads interdisciplinary research and policy engagement at the nexus of finance, investment, natural capital, resilience and sustainable development with a global focus.

Professor Ranger is a globally recognized expert in sustainable finance, climate and nature, and systemic resilience. Her research focuses on integrating climate and nature risks into financial decision-making, developing innovative financial instruments, green fiscal policy, debt sustainability and mobilizing investment for sustainable development. She works closely with financial institutions, central banks, governments, and international organizations.

Professor Ranger has published extensively on topics related to sustainable finance, risk, resilience, nature and development. She serves on several high-level advisory groups, including those for the World Bank, the Bank of England’s Climate Financial Risk Forum, the Network for Greening the Financial System, TRASE, Natural State and PlanetaryX.

She also holds the following positions:

• Founding Director, Resilient Planet Finance Lab
• Co-Director, UKRI Integrating Finance and Biodiversity
• Co-Director, Leveraging Earth Observation for Nature Finance
• Senior Research Fellow, Institute for New Economic Thinking, Oxford Martin School
• Senior Associate, Oxford Net Zero
• Fellow, Centre for Economic Policy Research

Background

Nicola brings two decades of experience working in senior roles across government, research, international financial institutions and the private sector. Most recently, this includes leadership roles at the Environmental Change Institute of the University of Oxford, the World Bank and DFID (now FCDO) where she works with financial institutions, Ministries of Finance, Central Banks, International Financial Institutions to strengthen fiscal and financial resilience to climate and other crises, mobilise finance for sustainable development, and put in place systems to strengthen resilience to shocks and crises.

During her career, Nicola has been involved in founding and leading many significant global initiatives related to sustainable finance and systemic resilience, including the G20-V20 InsuResilience Global Partnership, the Global Shield Financing Facility, the Centre for Greening Finance and Investment and the Centre for Disaster Protection. She led the first nature-related stress test for a G7 economy (the UK) and has been involved in leading work on climate financial and fiscal risks and risk management across more than 10 countries. She also works extensively on mobilising sustainable investment. She was a member of the European Commission High Level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance in Low and Middle Income Economies; the UK Green Taxonomy Advisory Group; and the Financial Systems Thinking Innovation Centre of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, as well as a Visiting Researcher at the Bank of England and Senior Advisor to the World Bank. Nicola also has a professional background in risk financing and has been involved in establishing insurance-based mechanisms, contingent financing and regional risk pools across multiple countries

Prior to this, Nicola was a Senior Research Fellow and Head of Adaptation and Development at the Grantham Research Institute, LSE between 2009 and 2013. In 2005/06, she was part of the HMT/Cabinet Office Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change and has worked as a Scientific Advisor at Defra, HM Treasury and the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology. Nicola completed her postdoctoral research in climate economics and policy at the Grantham Research Institute LSE and holds a doctorate in Atmospheric Physics from Imperial College London.

Research interests

• Sustainable finance
• Fiscal and financial policy and regulation
• Risk analytics, modelling, stress testing and scenario analysis
• The economics of natural capital
• Risk and decision making
• Disaster risk financing and insurance
• International financial system
• Sustainable development
• Mobilising sustainable investment in emerging and developing economies
• Nature finance and investment
• Adaptation and resilience finance
• Systemic resilience
• Development and humanitarian finance