Stephen Hammer has more than 30 years of experience working on climate change and sustainability issues at the global, national, and local levels. Dr. Hammer now serves as the founding CEO at the New York Climate Exchange. Part think-tank, part do-tank, part research institution, part climate tech incubator, and part academic institution, the Exchange brings together public, private, academic, and community partners to explore, implement, and scale transformative initiatives on climate change.He previously served as a senior policy advisor at the World Bank, providing strategic counsel to Bank leadership on global climate policy matters, leading on major global climate partnerships (including with the UNFCCC, UNSG, G7 and G20) and regularly represented the Bank in international fora. Most recently, he advised the UNFCCC's Transitional Committee charged with setting up the new global fund on Loss and Damage that is now being fully operationalized following formal approval at COP28.Prior to joining the World Bank, Dr. Hammer was a full-time Lecturer at MIT and Columbia University, where his research and classes focused on energy policy and planning. At Columbia he also Directed the Urban Energy Program based at the School of International and Public Affair's energy research center.In addition to his teaching, Dr. Hammer regularly consulted with governmental and non-governmental organizations, including, the OECD, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, McKinsey, China's Energy Smart Cities initiative, the US National Park Service, and the Presidential Commission on Environmental Quality.Dr. Hammer co-founded and co-directed the Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN), an international consortium of researchers interested in climate change from an urban perspective. He was also a member of the Energy Policy Task Force advising then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg on matters germane to PlaNYC, New York City's long-term growth and sustainability initiative.