Syed Adeel Abbas (Adeel) is the Regional Coordinator for climate change in the World Bank, Middle East and North Africa Region and brings over 20 years of experience in Climate Change Adaptation, Climate Resilience/DRM and Green Growth. In this capacity, he leads the technical advice and guidance to WB programs and projects in the region for climate smart development.
He joined World Bank Group in 2012 and has since worked in several departments including Energy, Urban, Environment and Climate Change Global Unit before moving to MENA Region. He led the development of the Middle East and North Africa Climate Change Roadmap and continues to support the roll out and implementation of the plan and associate knowledge working with team across the institution. Adeel has supported preparation and implementation of over 20 policy reform and lending operations and contributed to numerous analytics and knowledge-based flagship reports at the bank and other international institutions.
As part of the global climate change department of the bank, he spearheaded WB’s climate finance initiative and led a team of technical experts responsible for mainstreaming of climate action and provision of climate-related advisory services to clients and Bank teams, shaping over 80bn of WB’s climate related programs in the five years period. He has also contributed to World Bank Group Climate Change Action Plan 2021–2025: Supporting Green, Resilient, and Inclusive Development and Action Plan on Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience. Over the years, he has engaged with development partners, multi-lateral development banks (MDBs) and public and private sector stakeholders on issues of economics of climate action, climate finance on strategies and instruments to accelerate climate mitigation and adaptation globally. He serves on the advisory board to World Economic Forum on Navigating Article 6:Opportunities for the Middle East and North Africa.
Prior to joining WBG, he worked for over 10 years in the international relief, humanitarian and development projects supported by UN, USAID, JICA, and WB across South Asia, Latin America, East Asia and Middle East and Eurasia region.
Adeel holds an MBA in Global Finance & Sustainability from George Washington University, master’s in finance from COMSATS university, and a certificate for international development from Harvard University. He was awarded the Fulbright scholarship and holds multiple awards for his efforts in the field of international development.