I started my
research when I became a part of George Mason’s cohort of Global Problem
Solving Fellows. My initial research question was on the U.S.-India bilateral
climate treaty and how the quality of U.S. climate finance would influence
India’s willingness to pursue carbon reductions. While in Rajasthan, India this
past summer I was able to speak with the state’s Renewable Energy Corporation
as well as with a few non-profit organizations working on energy issues in
Rajasthan. These conversations shifted my research to how climate finance could
be more receptive to local energy needs and dynamics. Gender and energy was a
reoccurring theme in my interviews and since returning my research has focused
on ways in which U.S. climate finance can be more gender sensitive. This
semester as an Undergraduate Research Scholar I have been synthesizing my
research on the high-level U.S.-India relations and the local impacts of
climate finance.
Long term
I hope to work in global governance policy with a focus on climate change
mitigation and adaption. My research has already given me the foundation
necessary for my current internship with the Heinrich Boell Foundation. Most of
my work for URSP this semester has consisted of literature reviews and going
through reports on climate finance and successful climate mitigation projects
in South Asia, but I did get a chance to travel with my research. A few weeks
ago I participated in the 60th UN Commission on the Status of Women
as a youth delegate. During this week I attended over a dozen panels on energy
access and rural development hosted by women’s NGOs from around the world. This
type of learning has been crucial to my research. I learned about everything
from the Philippines’ Department of Energy gender toolkit to successful
attempts at including rural women in the creation of international development
goals. It was also a space to share my research: I sat on a panel on gender and
climate change at the first ever Youth Commission on the Status of Women.
