Advisory Council

Advisory Council

Net zero transitions involve a significant amount of social, environmental, and economic complexity. There will always be different perspectives on what makes a transition “just”.

The JUST Stories Advisory Council provides the JUST Stories team with a diverse group of experts to stress test our approach to identifying and selecting stories, structuring each story to find a balance between the solutions and challenges at hand, as well as disseminating the stories to other local leaders to learn from, replicate, and scale.

Mary Robinson, Co-chair

Mary Robinson is a passionate advocate for gender equality, women’s participation in peace building, human dignity and climate justice. The first woman President of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson is a globally recognised voice on climate change and frequently highlights the need for drastic action from world leaders, as well as the intersectionality of the climate emergency: from intergenerational justice to gender inequality and biodiversity loss.

Sharan Burrow, Co-chair

Sharan Burrow is a global advocate for human rights, climate action and just transition. She is the former General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (2010-2022) and was President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (2000–2010). She has represented workers and civil society groups in global policy discussions in United Nations bodies, on the Governing Body of the International Labour Organisation, as well as at the tables of the G7, G20, World Bank and International Monetary Fund. She has twice been a Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos.

Mandy Rambharos

Mandy Rambharos, Vice President for Global Climate Cooperation, leads EDF's strategy to ensure the implementation of effective global climate policy and a just transition. Prior to joining EDF, Mandy worked for two decades at Africa’s largest electric utility, Eskom Holdings. As General Manager for Just Energy Transition, she led the development of the utility's strategy to transition from a coal-dominated utility to a renewables company. Rambharos is a former negotiator for South Africa at the United Nations climate talks and was instrumental to the Just Energy Transition Partnership agreed at COP26.

Nonette Royo

Nonette Royo is a lawyer, and a specialist in Indigenous Peoples, land rights, environment, and natural resources management. Most of her work has been in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, especially in Indonesia, Philippines, Mekong region and Melanesia. She co-founded and led the Samdhana Institute and set up several non-governmental organisations focusing on advancing Indigenous Peoples and women’s legal rights. Nonette is also the executive director of the Tenure Facility.

Leonardo Sakamoto

Leonardo Sakamoto is a journalist with a PhD in Political Science from the University of São Paulo. Sakamoto is the chairman of Repórter Brasil, a Brazilian NGO, reference in the investigation on slavery and social and environmental rights violations and is writer of the II Brazilian National Plan for the Eradication of Slave Labour. He is also professor of Journalism at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, author of books such as "Contemporary Slavery" (2020) and works in UOL, the biggest Brazilian journalism website, being one of the most read journalists on political issues in Brazil.

Katherine Stodulka

Katherine Stodulka is a Partner at Systemiq where she leads the Sustainable Finance platform and is head of the London office. Katherine drives Systemiq's country transition finance work, including on JET-Ps, and supports financial institutions to set and implement net zero strategies, including structuring climate funds and investment opportunities, integrating climate risk, accessing catalytic capital and assessing impact. Katherine is the Chair of the Blended Finance Taskforce, a global coalition set up to unlock public, private and philanthropic capital for people and planet, helping design, fundraise and develop pipeline for new financial products & vehicles to accelerate net zero, nature positive and more inclusive investment.

Alison Tate

Alison Tate is the Director of Economic and Social Policy, International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). Representing 200 million workers in 165 countries, the ITUC seeks to increase intergovernmental cooperation to ensure that the social dimension of globalisation, including decent work and fundamental workers’ rights, is right at the centre of decision-making at the world’s major global and regional institutions. An economist with experience in national and global economics, international trade and investment, social policy, human rights and labour standards, sustainability, climate action, migration, responsible investment and corporate accountability, Alison leads the ITUC’s work on “Global Shifts and Just Transitions” to future proof the world of work.