Laura Burke is the Director General of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), appointed in 2011 and served as a Director within the EPA since 2004. 

As Director General she has the responsibility to lead and strategically manage the EPA. Laura was the Chair of the European Environment Agency (EEA) Management Board from 2017 to 2023. Laura is a member of the Climate Change Advisory Council (CCAC) and a member of the High Level Implementation Committee of ‘Food Vision 2030’, the Irish Agri-Food Sector Strategy. Prior to joining the EPA, she worked in the private sector. Laura is a graduate chemical engineer of University College Dublin (UCD), holds an MSc from Trinity College, Dublin, is a Fellow and is President of Engineers Ireland and is a Chartered Director. She is a member of the Board of Genio a non-profit European organisation. In 2016 Laura was awarded the UCD Engineering Graduates Association (EGA) Distinguished Graduate Award.

Oonagh is the Secretary General of the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications. Prior to taking up that role Oonagh served as Interim Chair of An Bord Pleanála, on secondment from her role as Deputy Secretary General in the Department of Justice with responsibility for civil justice matters, including immigration, courts and civil and family law. Oonagh had previously held the position of Director General in the Workplace Relations Commission. Before that she worked at a senior level in a number of Government Departments, including the Departments of Public Expenditure and Reform, Environment and Foreign Affairs. In her previous time in the Department of the Environment she worked for a number of years on planning policy and legislation and on wildlife conservation.

Oonagh is a graduate of UCC, the College of Europe, Belgium and Poland, and the University of London. She was called to the Bar in 1996. She has an MSc in Business from the Smurfit School in UCD and has been an adjunct professor in the School of Law of UCC since 2017.

Danny McCoy is Chief Executive Officer of Ibec since 2009. Ibec is Ireland’s largest business representative organisation and the country’s largest lobbying group. It has 285 staff in nine locations and has 39 sectoral brands with substantial presence within the European Union through Ibec’s Brussels office. He is a member of the Irish Tripartite Labour Employer Economic Forum (LEEF).

He is a Member of the Royal Irish Academy, a Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy, Honorary Fellow of the Irish Academy of Engineers, Adjunct Professor Trinity College Dublin Business School and Vice President of the Statistical & Social Inquiry Society of Ireland and Independent Non Executive Director of Iput Real Estate.

Danny has an honorary doctorate from the University of Galway He has held lecturing posts at University College London, University of Oxford, Trinity College Dublin and Dublin City University. He has been senior economist at the Central Bank of Ireland and the Economic & Social Research Institute as well as being a consultant to the European Commission and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Luca DE CARLI is Deputy Director for Strategy, Analysis and Planning in the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Climate Action. He leads the unit responsible for legal issues, relations with Council and Parliament, and he’s responsible for the European Climate Law. Before joining DG CLIMA in 2019, Luca has been working on trade disputes and trade negotiations.

Matt leads HM Treasury’s team developing and delivering policy for the UK Emissions Trading Scheme and UK Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism – with a specific focus on technical and regulatory policy. He has worked on UK carbon pricing policy since the establishment of the UK ETS in 2021, prior to which he covered the European economy. Matt studied economics at University College Dublin and the University of Edinburgh, and joined HM Treasury in 2016.

Prof. Dr. Daniel Klingenfeld is Head of Department “Energy Installations, Aviation, Maritime Transport, Registry and Economic Aspect” at the German Emissions Trading Authority (DEHSt) in Berlin.
He holds an Honorary Professorship at Leuphana University Lüneburg and a PhD from Technical University Berlin with a focus on carbon pricing, emissions trading system design options, and international cooperation. Before joining DEHSt, Daniel Klingenfeld had been working at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) in a leadership role. He has been active as author of scientific publications and expert speaker on topics of climate change and climate policy, nationally and internationally. He holds further degrees from the Harvard Kennedy School (Master in Public Policy) as well as ESCP Business School (M.Sc. in Management).

Maria Martin is a Senior Manager in the Climate Programme of the EPA's Office of Evidence and Assessment.

Dr. Paul Deane – Paul is a Senior Lecturer in Clean Energy Futures at UCC and a fellow at the Colorado school of Mines. Paul is one of the top ten most cited academics globally in his field of energy modelling. His research looks at how society can move away from polluting fuels to cleaner and safer alternatives. He is a board member of Rethink Ireland, who support innovative non-profit organisations in communities across Ireland on social and environmental issues.

Dónal Moriarty joined Aer Lingus in 2009 and has held a number of roles since then in Legal, Corporate Affairs and Communications. Dónal currently holds the position of Chief Corporate Affairs Officer with responsibility for Government and Corporate Affairs, Communications, Sustainability, Property and Risk.

He is a lawyer and a graduate of University College Dublin.

Mr Shirley began his maritime education at Cork Regional College in 1989 and has been working in the Maritime industry in excess of 30 years.He then became an Engineer Superintendent at Arklow Shipping, where he played a key role in the new build program in Japan, as well as in other countries such as Holland, Germany, Spain, and Korea. In 2023, Mr Shirley was promoted to Technical Director at Arklow Shipping, where he is heavily involved in the company's New Building Program aimed at reducing ships emissions. He also extensively examines the numerous new technologies in relation to decarbonisation in the maritime industry for the fleet of 61 vessels in the Irish Fleet and Dutch Subsidiary Company. Mr Shirley actively engages with the Flag States to ensure current and future compliance with National and International legislation, and maintains a rigorous oversite of the Companies quality, safety and security standards for the fleet. Additionally, Mr Shirley is a member of the Irish Chamber of Shipping.

Andrea is managing director of the International Carbon Reduction and Offset Alliance (ICROA) – an industry association running an accreditation programme for best-in-class carbon offsetting services. She also works an independent advisor and non-executive director to support companies with their net zero strategies. Further, Andrea is a mentor for the Creative Destruction Lab (Oxford University chapter), assisting new ventures in the climate stream.

Previous roles have included Director Energy Transition, bp Downstream where Andrea and her team were at the centre of driving bp’s net zero ambition. This included supporting the Downstream executive and bp main Board in defining decarbonising pathways to achieve net zero, understanding climate risks, reporting (ESG) and implementing targets. Driving the energy transition, Andrea established cross-business governance, performance management and GHG measurement processes.

As head of bp Target Neutral, Andrea led a world-class voluntary carbon market programme developing carbon reduction and offsetting programmes for bp and its customers. Working with NGOs and industry associations, her team developed many industry firsts including offsetting programmes for the London Olympics & Paralympics and FIFA Brazil World cup.

Previously Andrea was instrumental in setting up bp’s Strategic Partnering business establishing 20 global strategic collaborations with many of the world’s largest corporations.