Jane McDonald is IISD's Executive Vice President and Chair of the IISD Experimental Lakes Area Board. In this role, Jane oversees the operations of one of the world’s most influential freshwater research facilities and provides leadership to IISD’s global team, whose work impacts economies, ecosystems, and lives in nearly 100 countries.
Jane has over 15 years of Canadian and international experience working with governments, corporate executives, and major think tanks to advance sustainability. She worked in the financial sector building new environmental markets at investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald, and she led efforts to build a cross-border coalition that succeeded in securing the inclusion of Canadian renewable electricity in the US Clean Power Plan while at Manitoba Hydro.
More recently, Jane served as policy director for the Canadian Minister of Environment and Climate Change, where she supported the Canadian government’s role in the Paris Agreement, as well as negotiations with provinces on the pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change and the 2016 North American Climate, Clean Energy, and Environment Partnership. In 2018 she served with a diverse group of stakeholders on Canada’s Generation Energy Council, producing the first energy vision for Canada consistent with the country’s climate goals.
Jane is a board member of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, Clean Prosperity, and the Transition Accelerator. She has served on the steering committee of Smart Prosperity, the board of the International Institute for Sustainable Development, as an advisor to Western University’s Network for Business Sustainability, and as director of Clean Air Canada Inc. She taught environmental finance as an adjunct professor at the University of Toronto and is a 2007/2008 Fellow of Action Canada.
She studied economics and literature at McGill University and received an international MBA from York University and Ecole Supérieur des Sciences Economiques et Commerciales in Paris.
All Publications
- COVID-19 Shows How Canada Needs to Prepare for the Next Crisis
Blog - April 23, 2020
As communities across Canada grapple with the deadly and damaging effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have a rare window right now into how important it is to prepare for a crisis. - A Year in the Life of the World’s Freshwater Laboratory: IISD Experimental Lakes Area Annual Report 2018-2019
Report - December 28, 2019
IISD Experimental Lakes Area's 2018-2019 annual report is a handy wall calendar for 2020 that takes you through a year in the life of our research. - Time to Trade Collective Inertia for Collective Action
Blog - September 20, 2019
To get where we need to on climate action, we need to do a lot of things. Here’s what we don’t need to do. - How NGOs Can Survive in the Age of Distrust
Blog - July 17, 2018
For the fourth year in a row, Transparify has given IISD its highest rating for financial disclosure of donors. - Let's talk, not bicker, about Canada's energy future
Blog - July 6, 2018
A clean energy transition requires Canadians to find consensus and act. - Federal government announces next steps for establishing carbon pricing across Canada: Reaction
Blog - December 21, 2017
Jane McDonald, Managing Director at the International Institute for Sustainable Development, responds to the federal government announcing its next steps for establishing carbon pricing across Canada. - Manitoba's Carbon Pricing Plan: What it gets right, and where we go from here
Blog - October 30, 2017
The Government of Manitoba has just announced A Made-in-Manitoba Climate and Green Plan. Jane McDonald breaks down the plan piece by piece to look at the pledges made and explore where the province needs to go from here.