About

I’m Sarah Conway, a climate and nature finance advisor with more than two decades of experience across the public and private sectors.

I have worked with public, private, philanthropic, and nonprofit institutions on finance issues related to oceans, disaster risk, climate adaptation and mitigation, and nature-based solutions. Specifically, my work focuses on how institutions understand, allocate, finance, and respond to climate and nature-related risk and opportunity. I advise organizations working to move from broad ambition to practical strategies, credible financing instruments and mechanisms, and decisions that can be implemented.

Background

I have worked across government, finance, consulting, and insurance.

Most recently, I served as a Director within the Disaster Risk Finance team at WTW. As head of the ecosystem resilience practice, I led consulting projects at the intersection of nature, climate, and finance. My work included the design and launch of parametric insurance products and programs for ecosystems, livelihoods, corporates, and blue/green economy investments, including approaches linked to coral reefs, mangroves, small-scale fishers, hotels, and blue bonds.

Before WTW, I worked as an independent climate and nature finance consultant for foundations, development agencies, international organizations, and climate finance initiatives. My projects included, for example, supporting the design of the Systematic Observations Financing Facility (SOFF), developing operational modalities for a new financing window within the Climate Risk & Early Warning System (CREWS) initiative, supporting blue carbon finance innovation, and advising philanthropic organizations on ocean and fisheries investment opportunities.

Earlier in my career, I served as Lead Climate Finance Negotiator on the United States delegation to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), including COP20 in Lima and COP21 in Paris. In that role, I also worked on donor coordination and U.S. involvement with the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and I helped to design and launch the Pilot Auction Facility for Methane and Climate Change Mitigation with the World Bank and the Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance with the Climate Policy Initiative (CPI).

My career began in capital markets, with roles at Citigroup and PIMCO, followed by conservation and climate finance work across Asia, the Pacific, and Latin America while living in Indonesia and working for Starling Resources.

Current Work

I now advise public, private, philanthropic, and nonprofit institutions on climate and nature finance questions, with a particular focus on:

• climate resilience and adaptation finance;

• disaster risk finance, including pre-arranged finance including parametric insurance;

• coastal, marine, watershed, and wetland finance;

• nature-based solutions and ecosystem risk reduction;

• public sector and blended finance strategies;

• outcome-linked and performance-based financing; and

• climate and nature risk as fiscal and balance sheet risk.

Writing

I also write The Risk & Resilience Ledger, a publication on climate risk, resilience, and finance.

The Ledger examines how risks, costs, and capital move through real-world systems: who bears risk, who pays for resilience, how economic value becomes - or fails to become - a payment stream, and what role financial instruments can actually play.