leonardo martinez-diaz
global director of sustainable finance at THE WORLD RESOURCES INSTITUTE
Marshall Scholar, Class of 1999 (Magdalen College at Oxford University)
“Over time, you realize that the things people are striving for - namely, economic stability and security, opportunities for their children, and an ability to pursue their intellectual and religious freedom - are things that you can strive for everywhere… And, that’s helpful in a sense that maybe we can develop some common behavior that helps us tackle international problems, including climate change, because it means we can appeal to similar ideas of belonging and a shared future.”
- LEONARDO MARTINEZ-DIAZ
A FINANCIAL LENS FOR CLIMATE CHANGE
Leonardo Martinez-Diaz is a senior fellow and director of the Sustainability, Climate, and Geopolitics Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Prior to joining Carnegie, Martinez-Diaz led the climate finance team in the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Climate at the U.S. State Department, where he helped oversee the largest expansion of U.S. support for climate investments in developing countries. In 2024, President Biden nominated Martinez-Diaz to serve as Executive Director for the United States on the board of the World Bank Group. He was formerly the Global Director of the Sustainable Finance Center at the World Resources Institute (WRI). He managed research teams working on incorporating climate risk into financial decisions and also engages with government and financial organizations to implement these changes.
Before joining the WRI, Martinez-Diaz worked for the U.S. Department of the Treasury, where he was in charge of the domestic and international work on climate finance as well as climate and environmental funds. He led several discussions on climate change in international negotiations, including the Paris Agreement. Additionally, Martinez-Diaz is co-author of the book Building a Resilient Tomorrow: How to Prepare for the Coming Climate Disruption (Oxford, 2019).