As a passionate climate advocate I have been engaged in international climate policy since 2009 when I witnessed the United Nations climate negotiations fail to deliver a new international climate agreement at the COP15 conference in Copenhagen. Then, I was a youth activist and organised the 5th Conference of Youth – the largest youth climate event at the time – to call on national leaders to act on climate change. Today, my professional life has met every expectations of my younger self: as a City Diplomacy Manager for the UK-based charity, C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40), I support the C40 network of megacities (92 across the world) to engage in international climate and sustainable development policy-making processes. As the mayors of the world’s greatest cities step up to address the issue of climate change at their level, my role is to drive their strategic engagement and participation in international processes and support their individual and collective messages as the new climate leaders on the global stage. My areas of expertise are the intergovernmental climate negotiations, the Paris Agreement and the G20 process.
Prior to working for C40 I managed low-carbon development projects for another city network and supported its global climate advocacy strategy and engagement in the United Nations negotiations. I also have experience in research institutes, consulting firms, local governments and international organisations where I worked on a range of climate issues in Europe, the United States, Brazil and Bangladesh.
I have an interdisciplinary background in climate science, international climate policy and urban planning and hold a Master of Arts in Climate and Society from Columbia University in the City of New York, joint Master degrees in European Affairs and Urban Sustainable Development from Sciences Po Lille and Lille University of Science and Technology and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations and Policies from the University of Kent at Canterbury.