Corrado Topi

Corrado Topi is a Senior Research Fellow at SEI Asia. At SEI Asia, Corrado directs the programme on inclusive finance and the Centre for Finance for Sustainability Bangkok (CFSB). Previously he was an SEI Affiliated Researcher from October 2020 to July 2024.

Corrado is an expert in the role of finance and economics, in decision making and policy making for the sustainable resilient climate smart transition in private enterprises and cities, and in the use of MREL and AI to support effective and inclusive economic and financial processes. He advises cities and private enterprises on innovative financial instruments for the climate smart transition, on blended and public leveraged finance, and on ESGs, safeguards, impact measurement frameworks and taxonomies.

Corrado has 30 years of professional experience and a combined corporate and academic background, where he focused on the management of strategic transition. Prior to joining SEI Asia, Corrado worked extensively on the economics and finance of climate smart transition in both small and medium-enterprises and large corporate, and he is one of the lead authors of the Mini Stern Review on the Economics of Low Carbon Cities. He led the development of ALCHEMY, an approach to participatory mapping and co-creation of economically and financially viable climate smart solutions for the value chain of private companies and was co-author of the Circular Economy Process for Stakeholders Framework.

Corrado is visiting fellow of the University of York Management School and Senior Policy Advisor of IIED Europe.

Corrado holds a degree in theoretical physics and a PhD in environmental science (ecological economics) on blueprints for the development of integrated green transition strategies at the local level.

In recent years, Corrado participated in several COP side events as an expert on green economy transition, was senior advisor to UNEP on combining approaches for scaling-up integrated policy support for the green economy, advisor of IFAD, invited expert at the G7 meeting on mobilising green finance for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), appointed expert in the Urban Transition Alliance of post-industrial cities in transition, and chair of the expert of the EUCANET network of cities. As Non-Executive Director he sits on the board of Hausos Private Venture Capital (Hyderabad, India), a private company that manages impact investment. He was a board member and Deputy Chair of Stichting GreenEcoNet (Groningen, the Netherlands), a private Dutch foundation, which managed a platform to support SMEs undertaking the transition to sustainable business models and the dialogue between SMEs, policy makers and research institutes on green transition solutions.

Corrado has authored more than 40 publications from peer review papers to divulgation articles, reports, policy briefs and books.