Jessica Smith

Nature Lead - UNEP FI

Jessica Smith is the technical lead for thematic work on nature at the UNEP Finance Initiative, promoting leadership across the global banking, insurance and investment industries on topics linked to food systems including land conversion, deforestation and fisheries. She led the establishment of the Good Food Finance Network high ambition group and was a founding lead in setting up the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD). Ms. Smith now facilitates industry platforms to align their financial flows with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), and encourages them to direct more finance towards nature’s stewards including Indigenous Peoples. Over the past two decades, she directed a consultancy firm, led secretariats for a number of private sector sustainability initiatives, worked for another branch of UNEP, IUCN and UNDP, based for several years in southern Africa.