About Us

Lucy is one of the driving forces behind the dynamic coalition, Nature4Climate, a strategic mobilisation response to climate change. Through Nature4Climate, she has helped to catalyse action and investment in nature-based solutions to climate change. Governments, companies and civil society organisations around the world are now recognising the urgent need for natural climate solutions, alongside decarbonisation strategies. She has played a central role in bringing together many different sectors of civil society to create an alliance of resolute partners committed to addressing the climate crisis and protecting and restoring our natural ecosystems. Lucy has guided Nature4Climate’s influencing strategy, building awareness of nature-based solutions, and engaging with governments, the private sector and more recently with youth mobilisation groups. In achieving this, Lucy’s past experience has been invaluable: drawing on her background as an international strategic communications specialist in the energy and natural resources sector, with experience at The Nature Conservancy, BP and at her own consultancy.

His background is as a UK based environmental activist. Having spent a decade working in and around the UK Parliament advising Political Parties and a number of large NGOs. James is currently the project lead for Nature4Climate, an international multi-sectoral strategic communications and advocacy platform. At its core is the objective that natural climate solutions that are capable of being one third of the solution to climate change by 2030. N4C targets and networks international leaders to build ambition and accelerate delivery. James is a catalyst whose work is a mission to help to nurtures a hotbed of ‘regenerative’ ideas that over the next decade have the potential of meeting the triple challenge ending biodiversity decline slowing dangerous climate change and reducing poverty.

Patricia da Matta is a Brazilian journalist whose expertise in communications strategies for dynamic audiences. Passionate about storytelling, for over 12 years, she has engaged in strategy design and implementation for communications endeavors across many fields, including climate action, sustainable agriculture, and energy, for private, governmental and non-governmental organizations in Brazil and abroad. She joins TNC from the UNFCCC Secretariat, where she helped design the communications framework for the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform (LCIPP), as well as the Nairobi Work Programme (NWP), under the vulnerabilities subdivision. Previously, Patricia has held positions at the digital team dedicated to deliver the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games and the Brazilian Trade and Investment Agency, where she led the communications and outreach plan for the Brazilian Pavilion at COP24. Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Patricia thrives in multicultural environments and has lived in the United States, France, Scotland and Sweden, the latter where she received her master’s degree in Global Studies at the University of Gothenburg. She now returns to the UK to join TNC and Nature4Climate London team, where she will take on the challenge of leading communications for the Nature4Climate Coalition and the NCS Action Mapper, under the Tackle Climate Change division.

Emmylie Borg Nilsson is a Swedish communications professional based in the UK. She has been with The Nature Conservancy and Nature4Climate since 2019, specialising in strategic communications, partnership management and project delivery for large-scale global initiatives. For the past couple of years, Emmylie has been leading on project delivery of the Nature Zone partnership at the UNFCCC CoP26 and CoP27. Before joining The Nature Conservancy, Emmylie spent several years working for international PR and Public Affairs firms with development and implementation of multi-channel campaigns focused on awareness raising, advocacy, and behavioural change. Most notably, she led partnership strategy for the award-winning #BetterThanThat campaign in 2017, raising awareness of the rising number of post-Brexit hate crimes in the UK. Emmylie has a MSc in Political Science from The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

Nimshani Khawe is Italian with a Sri Lankan background. She has a MSc in Geography on Environmental Risks and Human Security from the United Nations University in Bonn and a BA in International Relations from Richmond University in London. She worked in various geographical settings and with fantastic multi-cultural teams. She supported different sustainable development and climate-related projects, such as at the Ministry of Sustainable Development in Colombo (Sri Lanka), the United Nations Economic & Social Commission of Asia-Pacific (UNESCAP) and Environment Programme (UNEP) in Bangkok (Thailand) and the German Development Institute in Bonn (Germany). More specifically, Nimshani supported the coordination and implementation of advocacy projects on integrating the SDGs into national planning, climate finance, and ocean sustainability. She supported the planning of different high-level regional and national events in Asia and the Pacific. Furthermore, she conducted research and analysis of different countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions documents, examining the interlinkages between countries’ climate change mitigation and adaptation targets and the SDGs. She also researched the potential of social protection programmes for climate change adaptation, conservation, and restoration. She now joined the Nature4Climate as a Project Coordinator and she is excited to work on Nature-based Solutions related projects.

Joanna Benn is British and specialises in communicating and campaigning on international environmental issues. She currently works for The Nature Conservancy on strategic communications across a variety of issues. She has lived and worked in six countries including the UK, Switzerland, Italy, Kenya, the USA and Belgium and considers herself very much a ‘global citizen’. She has worked for various non-governmental organisations and the United Nations Environment Programme leading projects and communications, as well as for international news networks, foundations and print outlets. Jo worked in the ITN Newsroom having won the annual Terry Lloyd Memorial Bursary in 2008 and was an Executive Producer of Extinction Sucks, an internet television series for Babelgum. She has written for various environment websites and print outlets including the BBC, NatGeo Asia, Biz Green, WWF and The Environmentalist. She began her career at Associated Press TV News in London as a TV producer where she managed production of international news packages and promotional materials, after an internship at CNN and a spell at the BBC. She is proficient in Spanish & French.

During Chris’ tenure at The Nature Conservancy, he has conducted and supported climate adaptation and mitigation research on four continents. He has developed innovative conservation and natural system management approaches using climate change impacts analyses and decision support applications that guide Conservancy programs and partners. Chris has led the development of numerous initiatives that directly support project implementation, global policy and communications, and the visualization and dissemination of cutting-edge scientific research that that connects science to action. Currently, Chris is a Natural Climate Solutions (NCS) Specialist at The Nature Conservancy where he is leading the development of an online platform that will allow decision makers to put Natural Climate Solutions into action, by showing where and which NCS activities have the highest climate, biodiversity, and human-wellbeing benefits and likelihood of success.