Maria Athena R. Ballesteros is the Manager of WRI’s International Financial Flows and the Environment Project. She is a long-time climate, energy and international financial institution (IFI) campaigner. For over 10 years, Athena has been involved in the international climate negotiations and in the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) processes as a technical advisor to the Philippine government delegations.

Prior to joining WRI, she was head of Greenpeace International’s climate and energy program in Asia Pacific, with specific activities focused on energy legislation and climate policy in China, India, Southeast Asia and Japan. She gained much of her professional experience in the field of environmental and development management through her work at various organizations including Friends of the Earth/Legal Rights Center; Greenpeace International, Greenpeace Southeast Asia and the Green Renewable Independent Power Producer Inc foundation (GRIPP).

She is one of the founding members of the Asian NGO Forum on the Asian Development Bank (ADB) which has grown to a coalition of over 100 organizations working on ADB reform. Athena is also the founder and chair of the Board of the Green Renewable Independent Power Producer Inc foundation (GRIPP), an organization working on sustainable cities and proponent of the electric jeepney project in the Philippines.

She has authored/co-authored various publications including the “The Big Switch: Towards Restructuring the SEA Electricity Sector”; Philippines Hotspots Report (Climate in Crisis); Fuel for Change: An Inventory of Ten Years of MDB Lending into the Energy Sector in Four regions; and Positive Energy Choices: An Alternative Energy Scenario for Thailand and the Philippines.

Athena holds a Bachelor’s degree in Communications and has a completed masters coursework in Community Development focusing on Development Planning from the University of the Philippines; a post graduate degree in Development Management from the Asian Institute of Management and post graduate training on energy policy, renewable energy technologies and integrated resource planning.