Benjamin Attia

Understanding North-South Climate Finance Networks: A Complex Network Science Approach

Benjamin Attia is a part-time DPhil researcher focused on climate finance flows to the Global South and novel climate finance instruments at the Smith School for Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford. His work aims to improve the description, design, and allocative efficiency of the global North-South climate finance architecture and measure its robustness to exogenous and endogenous shocks using complex network science methods.

Alongside his work at the Smith School, Ben is a Principal at Allied Climate Partners, philanthropic investing firm deploying risk-bearing capital to address climate finance bottlenecks emerging and developing economies, where he drives the fund allocation strategy and new fund development work. He was formerly the Research Lead for Energy, Climate, and Sustainability at BlackRock, where he steered the development and implementation of the firm's in-house transition scenario, supported investment research and diligence for BlackRock's private climate infrastructure equity platform, and provided insights and advisory on topics related to energy systems, climate change, blended finance, and the just transition to internal and external clients. Before BlackRock, Ben was a Principal Analyst in the Energy Transition practice at Wood Mackenzie, where he built and led the firm’s coverage of power sector transitions and energy access in emerging markets, primarily focused in Africa and the Middle East.

Ben also conducts affiliated research with various partners as a Non-Resident Fellow at the Energy for Growth Hub, The Payne Institute for Public Policy, and the James E. Rogers Energy Access Project at Duke University. Ben holds a Masters of Energy & Environmental Policy and a B.S. in Economics and Energy & Environmental Policy from the Biden School of Public Policy & Administration at the University of Delaware.