Gonzalo Delacámara
Climate adaptation and water stress now sit directly on the balance sheet, yet most strategy teams still treat them as compliance work downstream of the business case. Capital is being repriced by the EU Taxonomy, by insurers and by the physical reality of drought, flooding and supply disruption. Boards need someone who can connect the economics of a river basin to the cost of capital, and say clearly what changes in their model.
Gonzalo Delacamara is an economist who helps boards, investors and governments price climate, water and natural-resource risk into strategy, capital allocation and sustainable-finance decisions, and directs the IE Center for Water and Climate Adaptation at IE University.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Gonzalo Delacamara
- He sits inside the rule-making, not outside it. As a member of the European Commission’s Platform on Sustainable Finance, he helps shape the EU Taxonomy that is now reshaping how capital is allocated across European markets.
- He translates natural-resource economics into CFO and investor language. Water, climate and biodiversity stop being policy topics and become inputs into valuation, cost of capital and scenario models.
- Operational reach across more than 80 countries, with advisory work for the European Commission, the World Bank Group, the OECD, the Inter-American Development Bank and UN agencies, gives a grounded view of how sustainability rules land in different jurisdictions.
- He leads Europe’s water policy conversation from the inside. First Vice President of Water Europe and Director of the IE Center for Water and Climate Adaptation, he is one of the few voices connecting EU water policy, desalination economics and climate resilience in the same argument.
- He convenes serious economic thought, not applause lines. He co-founded the Water Economics Forum with Nobel laureates including George A. Akerlof, Jean Tirole and Mohan Munasinghe.
Biography highlights
- Director, IE Center for Water and Climate Adaptation, IE University
- First Vice President, Water Europe (former EU Water Platform WssTP)
- Member, European Commission Platform on Sustainable Finance
- Senior advisor and member, OECD Water Governance Initiative
- Elected Board Director, International Desalination Association
- Professor at Universidad de Alcala; contributor to The Conversation and Smart Water Magazine; co-founder of the Water Economics Forum convening Nobel laureates in economics and peace
Biography
Water and climate adaptation used to be treated as environmental policy. They are now capital-allocation problems, and Gonzalo Delacamara is one of the few economists working at both ends of that shift. He directs the IE Center for Water and Climate Adaptation at IE University, and sits on the European Commission’s Platform on Sustainable Finance, the body advising on the EU Taxonomy for Sustainable Activities.
His career has been built at the intersection of natural-resource economics and policy design. For more than two decades he has advised the European Commission, the World Bank Group, the Inter-American Development Bank, the OECD and UN agencies including UN Water, UNESCO, FAO, WHO-PAHO and UNDP. That work spans more than 80 countries, across Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and South Asia, which shapes how he thinks about rules, implementation and the distance between the two.
As First Vice President of Water Europe and an elected Director of the International Desalination Association, he is embedded in the operational and infrastructure side of water policy, not just the academic side. He has taught at Universidad de Alcala for over fifteen years, writes for The Conversation and Smart Water Magazine, and co-founded the Water Economics Forum, a public debate initiative that has convened Nobel laureates including George A. Akerlof, Jean Tirole and Mohan Munasinghe.
The argument he brings to a boardroom is specific. Climate adaptation is no longer a compliance line; it is a repricing event. The EU Taxonomy, physical water stress and the cost of capital are already moving together, and organisations that treat sustainability as reporting rather than strategy are setting themselves up to misprice assets and underwrite the wrong risks.
Key speaking topics
- Water economics and climate adaptation
- EU Taxonomy and sustainable finance
- Governance of natural resources
- Economics of biodiversity and ecosystem services
- Geoeconomics and geopolitics of energy and water
- ESG strategy and capital allocation
- Sustainability under complexity and uncertainty
Ideal for
- Boards and executive committees setting ESG, sustainability and climate-adaptation strategy
- Banks, asset managers and insurers exposed to the EU Taxonomy and physical climate risk
- Utilities, infrastructure and industrial operators facing water stress and regulatory repricing
- Government, multilateral and policy audiences working on sustainable finance, water policy and climate resilience
Audience outcomes
- A clearer view of how the EU Taxonomy and the broader sustainable-finance architecture will reshape capital allocation in their sector
- A grounded read on where water, climate and biodiversity risks actually sit inside their business model, not just their disclosures
- Language that lets strategy, finance and sustainability teams argue the same case in the same terms
- Specific reference points from live policy processes in Brussels, OECD water governance, and multilateral finance
- Sharper questions to put to management and investment committees on climate adaptation and natural-resource risk