about | Boccaletti

About Giulio Boccaletti

I am the Scientific Director of the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change, where I direct the largest Italian research institution devoted to the science and economics of climate change. I am also the co-founder of the venture-backed tech company, Chloris Geospatial.

For the last 20 years, my work has been at the intersection of geophysical and ecological science, public policy, and business strategy. Water security and our relationship with Earth's climate are particular interests of mine. I am the Scientific Director of the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change.

I started out as a scientist, working on climate dynamics and physical oceanography at Bologna University. I obtained my PhD at Princeton University, where I was a NASA Earth Systems Science Fellow, and went on to MIT, where I worked on turbulence, instability theory and the large scale circulation of the ocean

I then went into business, joining global consultancy McKinsey & Company, where I ultimately became a partner, one of the leaders of its Sustainability and Resource Productivity practice, and the co-founder of its Water practice.

While at McKinsey I served dozens of private, not for profit, and public sector institutions and clients, across multiple industries, from health to finance. I worked in a dozen countries, from Ethiopia, South Africa and Jordan to India, China, the UK, and the US. During my time at the Firm, I also produced several public reports on key sustainability issues, including carbon and water security strategies for countries, the role of ICT sector in the climate transition, the economics of climate adaptation, and the economics of water security.

After my experience in the private sector, I joined the Nature Conservancy, one of the largest conservation organisations in the world, first as its Global Managing Director for Water, then as its Chief Strategy Officer. During my time there I was responsible for the strategy processes of the 4,000 people working at TNC in over 40 countries and for several key strategic initiatives, including its water funds programmes, its program on water markets, and its work on hydropower.

For my work on water, the World Economic Forum nominated me a Young Global Leader in 2014. I have been a member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Water and Global Futures Council on Natural Resource Security. I have also served on the OECD-WWC High Level Panel on Infrastructure Financing for a Water-Secure World.

My first book Water: A Biography, a history of the relationship between society and water, was released by Pantheon Books in September 2021. The Economist rated it one of the best books of that year. It has been translated into 9 languages, and was released as a paperback in 2022. My second book, Siccità, was released in September 2023 by Mondadori. My third book, Il Futuro della Natura, was published in September 2025 by Mondadori. The work described in that book was also the basis for the documentary series "The Future of Nature", a four part series for PBS/BBC, for which I was Executive Producer, narrated by Uma Thurman and which has been translated into several languages. My fourth book, The Environmental Republic with Princeton University Press is due to be released in May 2026.