Gregory Briffa

Mobilising private finance to help meet the financing gap for climate resilient infrastructure 

Gregory Briffa is a DPhil student in Geography and the Environment at the University of Oxford, based in the Oxford Programme for Sustainable Infrastructure Systems at the Environmental Change Institute. His research focuses on the financing of climate resilient infrastructure, with particular attention to the public mobilisation of private finance.  

His doctoral work explores the challenges that result from investment in resilient infrastructure typically generating diffuse avoided losses over time rather than shorter term, more focused and more direct returns.  It examines the differences between public and private decision-making frameworks when considering such investment, especially their different handling of risk, and the consequences.  And it investigates the use of public subsidy in the form of blended finance to incentivise greater private investment. 

As a senior climate finance and infrastructure professional he has worked for over twenty-five years in the UK and overseas with a wide range of public and private partners including governments, Multilateral Development Banks, the UN, private investors, NGOs, thinktanks and academia.  

He holds Masters degrees in Engineering Science from Cambridge University, in Development Studies from the Institute of Development Studies at Sussex University and in Public Administration from Warwick University Business School.  He is also a Chartered Engineer, member of the Institution of Civil Engineers and passed the three levels of the Chartered Financial Analyst Program in consecutive years while at the European Investment Bank. 

• Ranger, N., Verschuur J., Lambin, R., Weidinger, M., Briffa, G., and J. Sabuco (2025) Towards UK Systemic Resilience to International Cascading Climate Risks: The Role of Infrastructure and Supply Chains. Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford. UK_Systemic_Resilience_Report_2025[Web].pdf 
• Russell, T., Thomas, F., Taylor, A., Gordon, N., Campbell, J., Stephenson, T., Briffa, G., Peard, A., Thacker, S., Fowler, T., Hall, J.W. (2026) Institutionalisation of the Jamaica Systemic Risk Assessment Tool. Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford, UK and Climate Studies Group Mona, University of the West Indies, Jamaica.  
• The business case for climate resilient infrastructure: Oxford researchers help investors build climate resilience into infrastructure | Environmental Change Institute