Giulio Boccaletti

Giulio Boccaletti, Ph.D., (born in Modena, Italy) is the British-Italian Chief Strategy Officer and Global Managing Director for Water at The Nature Conservancy.^[1] Trained as a physicist and atmospheric scientist, Boccaletti currently sits on the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council,^[2] and has served on the OECD-WWC High Level Panel on Infrastructure Financing for a Water-Secure World.^[3]

An alumnus of MIT, Princeton and Bologna universities, Boccaletti was briefly a lead author of the fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)^[4] and contributes to the ideas platform published by the Edge Foundation, Inc.^[5]

Career

The Nature Conservancy

Boccaletti joined The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in February 2013. In his role as Chief Strategy Officer, he works with other members of the Executive Team to develop the organization’s strategy and apply economic and scientific practice to its conservation agenda. Likewise, as the organization's Global Managing Director for Water, Boccaletti leads a team of over 200 freshwater scientists, policy experts, economists and on-the-ground conservation practitioners. He promotes action on water issues by governments and businesses.^[6]

• Hydropower: Boccaletti has argued that if dams are better located, the same hydropower capacity could be built without damaging rivers to the same extent.^[7] In 2015, TNC published a report on this called the Power of Rivers.^[8]
• Water funds:^[9] Boccaletti has also argued in favour of water funds^[10] as a means of financing the $10 trillion funding gap for water.^[11] These should include investments in natural infrastructure, he has written,^[12] and that investments in upstream nature conservation could improve water quality in a quarter of cities worldwide.^[13] After the launch of Africa’s first water fund, Boccaletti said “If we get it right, natural infrastructure may be the same story as mobile phones in Africa.”^[14]
• Climate bonds: In October 2015, Boccaletti called into question whether climate bonds are sufficiently transparent on sustainability.^[15]
• Sustainable Development Goals: Boccaletti has been a vocal proponent of the centrality of water access and security in dealing with other social issues such as public health.^[16]

McKinsey

In 2005 Boccaletti joined McKinsey & Company where he became a partner. He co-founded the water practice and worked with businesses and governments all over the world.^[17] He co-authored the “Charting Our Water Security”^[18] report, one of the first to address the question of global water scarcity through multilateral, private-public collaboration defining a cost-curve for investment in water infrastructure.^[19]

MIT

In September 2003 Boccaletti joined the Department of Earth Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he specialized in geophysical fluid dynamics and climate science. His research focused on the dynamics of large-scale oceanic flows.Boccaletti, G.; Ferrari, R.; Adcroft, A.; Ferreira, D.; Marshall, J. (2005). "The vertical structure of ocean heat transport". Geophysical Research Letters. MIT. 32: L10603. doi:10.1029/2005GL022474.

Early academic career

Boccaletti holds an MSc in Theoretical Physics from the Università di Bologna, Italy, and an MA and PhD in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences from Princeton University.^[20] He also investigated the theory of the General Circulation of the Atmosphere at Italy’s National Research Council (Italy).

Other interests

Boccaletti is an acknowledged expert of the Italian musical instrument known as the Ocarina, an ancient type of wind instrument, with a history dating back some 12,000 years. A member of the Gruppo Ocarinistico Budriese,^[21] Boccaletti has played professionally both in groups and solo since 1983.^[22]

Awards

• Young Global Leader, World Economic Forum, 2014^[23]
• Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Fellow, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2000^[24]

Research and publications

• Boccaletti, G.; Ferrari, R.; Fox-Kemper, R. (2007). "Mixed Layer Instabilities and Restratification" (PDF). Journal of Physical Oceanography. 37: 2228. doi:10.1175/JPO3101.1.
• "Stationarity"^[25] chapter in "This Idea Must Die", Harper Collins, 2014^[26]
• "The complex, consequential, not-so-easy decisions about our water resources" chapter in "What should we be worried about”, Harper, 2013^[27]
• "New Economic Frameworks for Decision Making" in "Water Security: the water-food-energy-climate nexus", The World Economic Forum Water Initiative, 2011, Island Press^[28]
• "Confronting South Africa's Water Challenge", 2010, McKinsey Quarterly^[29]
• "The Business Opportunity in Water Conservation", 2009, McKinsey Quarterly ^[30]
• "Charting our Water Future - Economic Frameworks for Decision Making", 2009, WRG report^[31]
• "How IT can cut carbon emissions", 2008, McKinsey Quarterly^[32]
• "Smart 2020 - Enabling the low carbon economy in the information age", 2008, GeSI - The Climate Group^[33]
• "Climate Change: Everyone's business", 2007, CBI Climate Change Task Force^[34]
• Boccaletti, G.; Ferrari, R.; Adcroft, A.; Ferreira, D.; Marshall, J. (2005). "The Vertical Structure of Ocean Heat transport" (PDF). Geophysical Research Letters. 32: 2228. doi:10.1029/2005GL022474.
• Boccaletti, G.; Ferrari, R. (2004). "Eddy-Mixed Layer Interactions in the Ocean" (PDF). Oceanography. 17: 12–21.
• Fedorov, A.; Barreiro, M.; Boccaletti, G.; Pacanowski, R.; Philander, S.G. (2007). "The freshening of surface waters in high latitudes: effects on the thermohaline and wind-driven circulations". Journal of Physical Oceanography. 37: 896–907. doi:10.1175/JPO3033.1.

References

1. "Nature Conservancy's executive team". The Nature Conservancy. Retrieved January 6, 2016.
2. "Global Agenda Council on water". World Economic Forum. Retrieved January 6, 2016.
3. "OECD Global Water Partnership" (PDF). OECD. Retrieved January 6, 2016.
4. "IPCC authors' page" (PDF). Retrieved January 13, 2016.
5. "Edge Giulio Boccaletti member bio". Retrieved January 13, 2016.
6. "Giulio Boccaletti TNC bio". Retrieved January 13, 2016.
7. "The Renewable Energy Source That's About to Boom Again". Time (magazine). Retrieved January 13, 2016.
8. "The Power of Rivers" (PDF). Retrieved January 13, 2016.
9. "Water Funds: Investing in Nature and Clean Water". The Nature Conservancy. Retrieved February 24, 2016.
10. "Water Funds:Investing in Nature and Clean Water". The Nature Conservancy. Retrieved January 13, 2016.
11. Charles Daly (August 17, 2015). "With Water Crisis Here, Funds Part of Solution, Boccaletti Says". Bloomberg News. Retrieved January 13, 2016.
12. Eddy Njoroge and Giulio Boccaletti (June 3, 2015). "How we can make nature work for us". Standard Media, Kenya. Retrieved January 13, 2016.
13. Giulio Boccaletti (December 4, 2014). "Making Water Conservation Pay". Project Syndicate. Retrieved January 13, 2016.
14. Megan Darby (July 31, 2015). "As climate change bites, Kenya water fund offers hope to farmers". Climate Change News. Retrieved January 13, 2016.
15. Giulio Boccaletti, The Nature Conservancy (October 23, 2015). "Not all types of water projects should be considered green". Environmental Finance. Retrieved January 13, 2016.
16. "How the UN's latest initiative could end the water crisis in 15 years". Thomson Reuters Foundation. July 23, 2015. Retrieved January 13, 2016.
17. "Dr Giulio Boccaletti". European Commission. May 7, 2011. Retrieved January 19, 2016.
18. "Dr Giulio Boccaletti". McKinsey. Retrieved January 19, 2016.
19. "Climate Change and Water Supply". C-Span (GB begins speaking at 27:15). November 23, 2009. Retrieved January 13, 2016.
20. "Giulio Boccaletti". Edge.org. Retrieved January 13, 2016.
21. "A sound "much like a baroque flute"". Princeton. December 14, 1998. Retrieved January 13, 2016.
22. "Budrio Ocarina Group - Italy (A.Vivaldi Concerto per flauto archi e basso continuo F. VI n°8)". YouTube. May 22, 2009. Retrieved January 13, 2016.
23. "WEF Young Global Leaders Class of 2014". Retrieved January 6, 2016.
24. "WHOI 2000 Program in Geophysical Fluid Dynamics". Retrieved January 6, 2016.
25. "Edge Foundation". Retrieved January 6, 2016.
26. "goodreads.com". Retrieved January 6, 2016.
27. "Harper Collins". Retrieved January 6, 2016.
28. "academia.edu". Retrieved February 22, 2016.
29. "mckinsey.com". Retrieved February 22, 2016.
30. "mckinsey.com". Retrieved February 22, 2016.
31. "mckinsey.com". Retrieved February 22, 2016.
32. "kyotoclub.org.com" (PDF). Retrieved February 22, 2016.
33. "smart2020.org" (PDF). Retrieved February 22, 2016.
34. "mckinsey.com". Retrieved February 22, 2016.