Tom is President and CEO of GCAP. Based in Oxford, England, he leads development of the business and innovative solutions.

Over his career, Tom has held a number of influential positions, including Advisor to the United Nations Environment Programme and the Munich Re Foundation Chair for social vulnerability. In his 30 years of experience working in the field of adaptation and vulnerability, he has led numerous projects, including technical coordination networks (for UNDP and UNITAR), EC assessments on the economics of climate change (ClimateCost), adaptive management in water (NeWater), responses to climatic hazards (SIRCH) and crop-climate impacts (CLAIRE and others). Tom is an internationally recognised thought leader in adaptation and has published over 100 papers, books, reports and book reviews, including the Atlas of Climate Change (with Kirstin Dow).

In 2010, Tom established the Global Climate Adaptation Partnership (GCAP) in order to promote client-driven solutions through the building of multi-disciplinary, multi-national capacities for climate adaptation. GCAP’s Knowledge Management Service includes the Climate Safeguards System for African Development Bank, now ported to their ICT department. John Colvin and Tom led the development of the M&E framework for PROADAPT, the private sector adaptation initiative in the Inter American Development Bank.

Before GCAP, Tom was the Director of the Stockholm Environmental Institute’s Oxford office, was one of the founding team for the Environmental Change Institute in the University of Oxford and served as the first director of the UK Climate Impacts Programme.

Google Scholar page: http://tinyurl.com/TEDowning.

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