Ms. Claire O’Neill
Managing Director, World Business Council for Sustainable Development
Ms. Claire Perry O’Neill served as a UK Member of Parliament for Devizes from 2010, was a Government Whip and Minister for Rail before becoming Minister of State for Energy and Clean Growth. She wrote and implemented the UK’s Clean Growth and Green Finance Strategies, created the global Powering Past Coal Alliance, oversaw the deployment of £3 billion of international Climate Finance and £200 million of cleantech innovation funding, negotiated the world’s first public-private Offshore Wind Sector Deal and led the UK Carbon Capture and Storage taskforce. In 2019, she brought forward the country’s ground-breaking Net Zero legislation and led the UK’s winning bid to host the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26). Ms. O’Neill served as COP26 President-Designate until she left politics in 2020. She is now the Managing Director for Climate and Energy at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. WBCSD has been the leading voice for business sustainability for over 25 years and is a global CEO-led organisation representing a combined revenue of over $8 trillion and 19 million employees. She has several non-executive Director roles and serves as a Senior Advisor to FTI Consulting and Public Policy Projects. Ms. O’Neill studied Geography at Oxford University followed by an MBA at Harvard Business School and had a transatlantic career in consultancy and finance before entering politics. She is a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society and the Energy Institute.