Josué Tanaka is Principal Finance Advisor at C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, a Visiting Professor in Practice at the London School of Economics (LSE) Grantham Research Institute, and an Honorary Senior Fellow in Climate Finance at Imperial College London. 

Josué has been working on development, environmental and urban finance for over 40 years, starting in Brazil before moving to the World Bank and then the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

At the World Bank, Josué worked in the strategic planning team, was special assistant to the President, and developed the Environmental Program for the Mediterranean. At the EBRD, he started the municipal and environmental infrastructure team, was country director for 6 countries – accounting for around a quarter of EBRD annual investment – and then corporate director for strategic and corporate planning and budget.

Josué is the founding leader of the EBRD climate finance initiative, leading under his tenure between 2006 and 2020 to cumulative EBRD green finance reaching over USD 42 billion in close to 2,000 climate change mitigation and adaptation projects, including the Green Cities Framework.

He currently serves on The SDSN Global Commission for Urban SDG Finance, joining a high-level group of mayors, experts, city networks, and scholars working to help cities access financing for projects that advance the Sustainable Development Goals.

Josué holds a PhD and MSc from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a BSE from Princeton University.