Ciril Wakounig is a passionate and outspoken energy professional and sustainability advisor, having worked with leading tech companies, policy makers and intergovernmental organisations as well as on his own start-up in renewable energy finance. He believes that energy is at the core of human development and the energy transition requires a people-centred approach and effective collaboration across cultures, norms and political interests.
He has recently been appointed to join the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation, where he focuses on deploying disruptive technologies in low-income countries. Before that, he acted as Policy Lead at Electricity Maps, a company that tracks power systems data and grid-related emissions in more than 50 countries in real-time. In his role, he focused on global energy policy and corporate sustainability to drive the transition of energy systems and collaborated with various stakeholders such as large corporations, the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Secretariat or the European Commission. He represented the company in various expert groups, such as the United Nations 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy Compact, the Green Software Foundation, or Center for Resource Solutions. Previously he co-founded a start-up focusing on democratising renewable energy investment and acted as a consultant at the International Energy Agency. In addition to his professional endeavours, he was a Young Energy Professional of the World Energy Council Austria and collaborated on a project investigating energy access in the Sub-Saharan region with the United Nations Environment Program.
Ciril was educated across multiple universities in Europe, receiving a Master’s degree in Sustainable Energy Engineering from the Technical University of Denmark and ETH Zürich, and a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Environmental and Process Engineering from Mining University Leoben in Austria. He also participated in the European Institute of Technology’s Climate-KIC Master School Programme focusing on Climate Innovation and Entrepreneurship and received additional training on Power Markets & Regulation at the Florence School of Regulation.
