People and Expertise 

Paul Watkiss is an independent researcher with over 25 years' experience of multi-disciplinary research in climate change and adaptation policy.

Paul’s areas of expertise cover climate change risk assessment, co-design, adaptation planning and appraisal, decision making under uncertainty, the economic costs and benefits of adaptation, and adaptation finance.

Paul has led the development of the climate change risk and adaptation assessment methods. He was involved in the first, second and third UK Climate Change Risk Assessments (CCRA) and has worked on climate risk and adaptation assessment methods for the Asian Development Bank and European Investment Bank.  He has also developed adaptation frameworks, developing methodological approaches for the UK Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Department for International Development (DFID), including in decision making under uncertainty. He has led numerous studies on the costs and benefits of adaptation for UK Government (Defra, DFID), the Committee on Climate Change, the European Environment Agency, the European Commission, the OECD, UNDP and the UNFCCC.

He has worked on adaptation policy and planning at multiple scales. He has led country studies on the economics of climate change and adaptation including in the UK, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nepal, Tanzania, Rwanda and Zanzibar, as well as local studies, including Glasgow City Region. He also has practical experience of adaptation programming and design, and has put together business cases and proposals for over £200 million of adaptation projects and programmes globally, including for UK International Climate Finance and the Green Climate Fund.

Paul has led numerous major studies and has written over 100 publications, reports and conference papers. He was a contributory author on three chapters of the IPCC AR5 WGII and one chapter of WGIII.

Kit England

Kit is a Senior Climate Adaptation specialist, with over 15 years’ experience in national and local adaptation planning and implementation in the public, private and third sectors. Over this period, he has used his expertise to design and implement local, national and European adaptation planning and policy responses, and build the capabilities and capacities of others to do the same. He specialises in work on climate change risk assessment, adaptation policy and regulation, place-based adaptation planning, economic appraisal, and adaptation finance.  He has led projects for and advised on a wide range of clients, including Climate Ready Clyde, EIT Climate-KIC Adaptation Scotland, Core Cities, the CCC, HMT, the Covenant of Mayors, ISO, BSi and the OECD. Recent work with PWA includes a portfolio of adaptation finance and economics projects, including providing Adaptation Investment Planning methodologies  100 regions in Europe as part of Pathways2Resilience, strategic advice on private sector finance of adaptation, as well as leading work for the UK’s Transition Plan Taskforce to develop new private sector guidance on adaptation and resilience in Transition Plans, and economic appraisal of climate change risks and adaptation in Scotland and the West Midlands.

Blanche Butera

Blanche Butera is a climate change adaptation specialist at PWA with expertise in designing and undertaking multidisciplinary research and policy analysis. She is passionate about building climate resilience while incorporating physical and socio-economic considerations, including gender equality and social inclusion. Blanche’s recent work has included the development of adaptation proposals for the Green Climate Fund  (on Mainstreaming Adaptation into Agricultural Development) and Adaptation Fund (Enhanced Direct Access), as well as work on the economics of climate change and adaptation. She was a lead author on the UNEP Adaptation Gap Report (2023, 2024) and Adaptation Finance Gap Update (2023).  Blanche holds Master of Science in Sustainable Water Management from Tufts University and a Bachelor of Science in Integrated Science from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Alistair Hunt

Alistair Hunt is an environmental economist and an expert in the valuation of climate change impacts and the costs and benefits of adaptation.  He is a Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics at the University of Bath and also works part time for Paul Watkiss Associates.  Alistair is an expert in the application of economic principles to project and policy analysis in the field of climate change. He has expertise in the monetary valuation of climate impacts, cost-benefit analysis (CBA) and decision support under uncertainty, including the application to the health, flood and other sectors.  He has worked on numerous studies on adaptation for PWA, including work for Defra, DFID, the EC, OECD, the Committee on Climate Change, World Bank and UNEP.