Bella Tonkonogy leads CPI’s US-based team, including guiding and overseeing the team’s technical work in climate finance and leading external engagement and program development. She is a climate finance expert with more than 15 years’ experience in domestic and international climate policy and finance.
Since joining CPI, Bella has played a leading role in the Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance, both contributing to its core operations and working directly with entrepreneurs to support the development of innovative climate finance instruments in renewable energy, climate risk and resilience, and sustainable cities. She also develops and guides key CPI programs and initiatives such as the Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance, where she managed the Secretariat transition to CPI and oversees strategy development and implementation; the Framework for Sustainable Finance Integrity, the first framework to provide universal guardrails for sustainable finance across the major sectors of the global financial system; and CPI’s work supporting the DFI+ Adaptation and Resilience Collaborative.
Bella regularly represents CPI at events and in media interviews. She is currently a member of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) Advisory Panel, the C40 Cities Finance Advisory Group, and the World Resources Institute’s Advisory Committee for the Solar Investment Action Agenda and Roadmap, in support of the International Solar Alliance.
Bella previously served as a Policy Advisor in the U.S. Treasury, overseeing the agency’s energy and environment investments in emerging markets, including as liaison to the Global Environment Facility and as advisor to U.S. negotiators on the Green Climate Fund, multilateral environmental agreements, and multilateral development bank energy policy. She has also served as a staff economist at the U.S. EPA, consultant to the OECD, UNDP, and clean technology companies, and as an early Braintrust member of the PRIME Coalition, a clean energy philanthropic initiative.
Bella has an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management, an MSc from Imperial College London, and a B.A. from the University of California-Berkeley.
