Labanya joined CEEW as a consultant (Sustainable Finance) in the CEF team. Labanya brings rich and diversified experience of over 19 years in financial services, capital markets, nonprofit institutions, green finance, international development, and academia.

Before this, he was heading the Center for Sustainable Finance (CSF) India at the Climate Policy Initiative. Prior to this, Labanya worked as a Commonwealth Regional Climate Finance Adviser, Indo-Pacific Region, at the Commonwealth Secretariat. He also worked as a sustainable finance consultant at UNDP, where he led the development of India's sustainable finance roadmap in association with the Ministry of Finance. Besides, he was a consultant with GIZ and World Resources Institute (WRI) for a brief period. He is also associated with the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA). He is currently the principal investigator for the “Financing India’s Net-Zero Targets” roadmap, which is being developed at NITI AAayog.

Before entering the climate change field, Labanya Prakash Jena spent more than a decade in the financial services sector.

Labanya is an avid writer on climate and green finance, with over 120 research papers, op- eds, blogs, and articles published. His writings have been published on several national and international platforms. He co-authored a book, “Net-Zero Trio: Synchronizing Technology, Business, and Policy for Green Transition,” published by Bloomsbury.

Labanya is a regular speaker on sustainable and green finance at various platforms and a visiting faculty member of business schools. He has conducted over 15 training programs for banks and financial institutions, focusing on sustainable finance and climate risk, reaching more than 600 executives.

He holds a Master's in Economics from Utkal University and a CFA Charter holder from CFA Institute. He is a Doctoral Scholar at XLRI, Jamshedpur.