Ruth Do Coutto has more than 25 years of professional experience in the development and management of environmental, climate, and chemicals-related policies and programs.
She currently serves as Deputy Director of the Climate Change Division at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). In this role, she supports the Division in providing strategic guidance to advance the transition toward climate stability, delivering technical assistance to governments to strengthen their policy development and implementation capacities, and helping them access financing to align with the goals of the Paris Agreement.
She has held several management positions within UNEP, including Head of the Mitigation Branch, where she led teams working on energy efficiency, cooling, buildings, cities, climate finance, technology, methane mitigation, food waste, transparency, nationally determined contributions (NDCs), and vertical funds. She also served as manager of the mitigation portfolios of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Green Climate Fund (GCF), as well as Division Coordinator for programmes and resource mobilization, and leader of the Cleaner Production Initiative, among other responsibilities.
Prior to joining UNEP, she worked for the Environmental Agency of the State of São Paulo (CETESB) in Brazil, focusing on accident prevention and preparedness for industrial activities.
She holds a degree in Chemical Engineering and a Master’s degree in Pollution Prevention from the University of São Paulo, Brazil.
