Mahmoud Abouelnaga is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s GeoTech Center and an industrial decarbonization expert at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). He leads UNIDO’S global portfolio on developing industrial decarbonization hubs in Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East and North Africa region. He is an energy engineer and climate policy expert with global work experience in clean energy technologies, environmental management, and climate policy.

At the GeoTech Center, Abouelnaga focuses on decarbonization of hard-to-abate sectors, enabling large-scale durable carbon sequestration, and commercialization of disruptive technologies to mitigate climate change. Abouelnaga writes frequently on the overarching topic of climate policy and clean energy technologies.

Prior to that, Abouelnaga managed the rulemaking and decarbonization programs at the US Department of Energy’s Federal Energy Management Program. His prior experience also includes leading the carbon management portfolio at the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions where he advised policymakers and business leaders on global policies needed to support carbon management technologies. Abouelnaga also worked for bioMérieux in France where he focused on several dimensions of climate change management: strategy, risk management, and carbon assessment and reporting. His prior experience also includes working as a petroleum engineer in Egypt.

Abouelnaga is a frequent speaker and media reference, and his work has been featured in international outlets including Bloomberg, Energy Daily, EnergyWire, Nature, Enterprise, and Politica Exterior. He was selected by the Posterity Institute and the United Arab Emirates’ Ministry of Climate Change and Environment as one of the sustainability pioneers in the Middle East and North Africa. He was also selected by the World Energy Council as one of the future energy leaders.

Abouelnaga was an inaugural Obama scholar at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago, where he earned an MA in international development and policy and a certificate in energy and environmental policy. He also holds an MSc in sustainable energy engineering from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, an MSc in environmental management from Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, and a BSc with honors in petroleum engineering from Suez University.