Biography
Sara Jane Ahmed is a prominent expert in climate finance, serving as the Founder and Executive Director of the Financial Futures Center and the Finance Advisor to the V20 Group of Finance Ministers from 55 climate-vulnerable countries. She developed the Sustainable Insurance Facility and the Accelerated Finance Mechanism for the V20, showcasing her innovative approach to climate finance.
Her previous roles include advisory positions at the Climate Change Commission in the Philippines, the United Nations Development Programme, the Asian Development Bank, and the World Resources Institute.
Sara holds a master’s degree in finance from the Simon Graduate School of Business at the University of Rochester and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Knox College. She also sits on the advisory board of the Global Renewables Congress and Climate Smart Ventures.
In her relatively short career, Sara has already achieved significant milestones, a testament to her strategic and collaborative approach. Few can match her ability to dive deeply into technical details while maintaining and strengthening a larger vision. This skill is crucial as she supports economies most exposed to climate impacts in sustaining functionality in an increasingly disruptive future.
“While vulnerable economies bear the majority of the brunt of economic damages from climate risks, they are poorly represented when global agendas are set,” she said.
Sara launched the Financial Futures Center to realize her vision of supporting the countries most vulnerable to climate change in achieving prosperity by increasing resilience and driving a clean energy economy.
Breakthrough Program
Sara was selected for the Climate Breakthrough Award program in 2021.
Investments are not flowing enough to climate-vulnerable countries to achieve sustainable prosperity. Sara has a groundbreaking idea: Climate Prosperity Plans (CPPs). These are customized financial and economic models for such countries, mapping out investment pathways that reconcile climate action with economic priorities like job creation, debt management and energy access.
By 2030, she aims to support dozens of nations to implement their Plans and forge new partnerships that can kickstart the transition to clean energy markets.
Leveraging her role as the V20 Finance Advisor, Sara has been working with a pipeline of developing countries who have shown interest in the CPPs, with Bangladesh and its Mujib Climate Prosperity Plan leading the way. Sara will scale this work and engage in multiple countries simultaneously with the first wave including Bangladesh, the Maldives, Rwanda, the Philippines, Fiji, and Ethiopia, all places where Sara has already begun discussion.
This ambitious initiative is grounded in political economy, recognizes distinct national and regional challenges, ensures country ownership of the plans, builds in-country capacity, and promotes South-South expertise and collaboration.