GEAPP Leadership Council (GLC)

Our work is amplified by the advocacy efforts of the GLC formed of the heads of our Alliance partners and thought leaders who shape global finance, clean energy, and philanthropy

The GLC is a diverse coalition to over thirty global leaders coming together to tackle the most challenging barriers to scaling just energy transitions worldwide and keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The GLC is a critical and impartial platform to start advancing solutions, including driving down the cost of clean energy technologies, delivering locally owned Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JET-Ps), and building carbon credits for coal decommissioning. The GLC will be a forum to galvanise action on a more ambitious, urgent, and inclusive global renewable energy agenda. Collectively this forum will shape the global agenda on these critical issues, strengthen our collective actions, and ensure optimal impact of GEAPP’s philanthropic capital.

The GLC is co-chaired by Jonas Gahr Støre, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Norway, and Dr. Rajiv J. Shah, President of The Rockefeller Foundation.

Meet the GLC Members

  • Jonas Støre – Co-Chair
    Prime Minister, Kingdom of Norway
  • Dr. Rajiv Shah – Co-Chair
    President, The Rockefeller Foundation
  • Achim Steiner
    Achim Steiner
    Administrator, United National Development Programme (UNDP)
  • Ajay Banga
    President, The World Bank
  • Ashish Khanna
    Ashish Khanna
    Director General, International Solar Alliance (ISA)
  • Dr. Akinwumi Adesina
    President, African Development Bank Group (AfDB)
  • Børge Brende
    President, World Economic Forum
  • Damilola Ogunbiyi
    SSRG and CEO, Sustainable Energy for All; Co-Chair, UN-Energy
  • Doug Varley
    Doug Varley
    Interim President and CEO, Bezos Earth Fund
  • Fatih Birol
    Executive Director, International Energy Agency
  • Frederick Teo
    Frederick Teo
    CEO, GenZero
  • Francesco La Camera
    Director-General, International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)
  • Ilan Goldfajn
    President, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)
  • Ingrid-Gabriela Hoven
    Managing Director, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)
  • Jessica Anderen
    CEO, IKEA Foundation
  • Jessica Uhl
    President, GE Vernova
  • Jin Liqun
    President & Chair of the Board of Directors, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)
  • Jon Creyts
    Jon Creyts
    CEO, RMI
  • Kelly Sims Gallagher
    Dean of Energy & Environmental Policy, Tufts University
  • Leslie Maasdorp
    Leslie Maasdorp
    CEO, British International Investment (BII)
  • Mafalda Duarte
    Executive Director, Green Climate Fund
  • H.E. Mahid Al Suwaidi
    CEO, Altérra
  • Makhtar Diop
    Managing Director, International Finance Corporation (IFC)
  • Masato Kanda
    Masato Kanda
    President, Asian Development Bank (ADB)
  • Nadia Calviño
    President, European Investment Bank (EIB)
  • Patricia Espinosa
    Founding Partner & CEO, onepoint5
  • Paul Polman
    Business Leader, Climate & Equality Campaigner, Author
  • Rania Al Mashat
    Rania Al-Mashat
    Minister of International Cooperation, Arab Republic of Egypt
  • Rémy Rioux
    CEO, Agence Française de Développement (AFD)
  • Sumant Sinha
    Sumant Sinha
    Chairman and CEO, ReNew Power
  • Tariye Gbadegesin
    Tariye Gbadegesin
    CEO, Climate Investment Funds
  • Vera Songwe
    Vera Songwe
    Co-Chair, United Nations High Level Climate Panel
  • Ravi Venkatesan
    Ravi Venkatesan
    Board Chair, GEAPP

  • Woochong Um is CEO of GEAPP, leading efforts to mobilize finance and accelerate renewable energy adoption to address energy poverty and climate challenges. Formerly Managing Director General at ADB, he drove global partnerships and climate initiatives, including the Energy Transition Mechanism to phase out coal in Asia. He has advanced funding for ocean sustainability and clean energy transitions. With a background in corporate IT and development finance, he brings decades of experience in climate action and sustainable development.

    Woochong Um
    CEO, Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP)
    Global

GEAPP Leadership Council on Track to Meet 2024 Goals

During its launch in 2022, the GLC committed to significantly drive down the cost of renewable energy in low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs). As a response, it launched the BESS Consortium at COP28 in Dubai, with the goal of securing 5GW of energy storage commitments by the end of 2024 and fully deploying 5GW of BESS infrastructure across 30 countries by 2030. Through its DRE Scale-Up Initiative, the GLC has agreed to focus on expanding and coordinating investments across program areas to achieve the $30bn capital flow that is urgently required for transformative change in sector by 2030, with an initial 1GW project pipeline goal in key markets in 2024.

 

Read the Co-Chair Statement

Solutions from the GLC

BESS Consortium

A multi-stakeholder partnership of countries and resourcing partners to expand Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) capacity in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC)
Bess Consortium

Mission 300

In April 2024, the GLC endorsed the Mission 300 ambition set by the World Bank Group (WBG) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) to expand electricity access to 300 million people in Africa by 2030. Mission 300 aims to connect more than half of Africa's un-electrified population and 40 percent of those living around the world without electricity.

Media Corner

Saving the Faltering Energy SDG

Woochong Um

Project Syndicate
Accelerating Latin America’s Clean-Energy Revolution

Patricia Espinosa and Lourdes Melga

Project Syndicate
Only a new public-private alliance can fund energy transition

Raj Shah

Financial Times
Opinion: Battery storage is central to scaling renewable energy in Africa

Woochong Um

Devex

Latest from the GLC

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Alliancing in Action

GLC Co-Chair, Dr. Rajiv Shah of The Rockefeller Foundation, and GLC Member, Damilola Ogunbiyi of SEforALL, visiting DRE projects in Nigeria
GLC Co-Chair, Jonas Gahr Støre, Prime Minister, Norway, at the IEA convening on clean cooking in Africa
Watch
GLC Co-Chair, Dr. Rajiv Shah of The Rockefeller Foundation and GEAPP's CEO, Woochong Um, visit the the first utility-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) that received regulatory approval in India.
GLC Co-Chair, Dr. Rajiv Shah of The Rockefeller Foundation, and GLC Member, Damilola Ogunbiyi of SEforALL, visiting DRE projects in Nigeria
GLC Co-Chair, Jonas Gahr Støre, Prime Minister, Norway, at the IEA convening on clean cooking in Africa
Watch
GLC Co-Chair, Dr. Rajiv Shah of The Rockefeller Foundation and GEAPP's CEO, Woochong Um, visit the the first utility-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) that received regulatory approval in India.