Global Director, Water Security
During her tenure as Global Director, Water Security at CDP, Cate has built the world’s largest coalition of non-state actors working to deliver a water secure future. Today, 680 financial institutions controlling $130trillion in assets use Cates program to gather water-related data from over 7,000 of the world’s most impactful companies. The data disclosed provides unique insights into the water-related risks, opportunities and impacts these companies have both today and into the future. This data is a public good and it, alongside the annual corporate water action benchmarks, are distributed throughout the economy to incentivise action and enable better decisions that drive the reallocation of capital towards those businesses valuing water and away from those that don’t.
Recently, Cate has spearheaded CDP’s work to accelerate the transition to a sustainable economy through her work to increase the water-related transparency and associated due diligence throughout private finance. Having developed the world’s first portfolio water impacts reporting framework aimed at banks, asset managers, asset owners and insurance companies, she is now leading the development of a Water Action Pathway for Finance alongside OECD, WFN and UNEP FI.
In addition to her time at CDP, Cate is also a strategic advisor to the UNFCCCC’s High Level Climate Champions, the Co-Chair of the Science Based Target Network Council, a knowledge partner of the TNFD, a founder of the Fair Water Footprints Coalition and one of Thompson Reuters 2023 Trailblazing Women working on Climate.
