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Esmeralda Colombo: Climate Risk

Esmeralda Colombo has received two rounds of CET Accelerator funding. Both grants allowed her to expandher network as a young researcher and communicate her research.

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Esmeralda has received two rounds of accelerator funding.
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Esmeralda Colombo

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Esmeralda Colombo was a PhD candidate when she received her first funding through the CET Accelerator scheme in Spring 2019. The project entitled Climate Risk and Sustainable Performance allowed her to explore various activities and thus develop a strong network as a young researcher.

The funding resulted in the conference «Investing in our future, divesting from our past: From Climate risk to climate opportunity”, an article and a Research Council of Norway project application.

TheAcceleratorSeed Funding that CET generouslyentrusted me within February 2019 allowed me to achieve what, at first glance, had seemed impossible fora junior femaleresearcher:start an international network and organize a conferenceon Climate Risk and Sustainable Performance, and take the momentum forward for a research project application to the Research Council of Norway. I am incredibly thankful for this opportunity!

Colombo applied for a new round in autumn 2020 “ideas and communication” call for the project Climate Risk and Democratic Energy Policies. The project aimed to communicate to the larger public on the role of science for depolarizing and democratizing energy policies.

The project resulted in a special three-part podcast called ClimatenergyTalk! The series was made in collaboration with Klimafestivalen §112 and published on CET Climate chat podcast page.

ClimatenergyTalk!

The years 2020 and 2021 have shown how the role of scientists is all the more important. During Klimafestivalen §112 Bergen 2021, the Center on Climate and Energy Transformation at the University of Bergen (CET) launched aseries of three podcasts onClimate Risk and DemocraticEnergyPolicies:Climatenergy Talk!Thepodcast series aims to communicate to the larger public on the role of science - the social and natural sciences - for depolarizing and democratizingenergypolicies.The series isendorsed by theNorwegian Climate FoundationandJuridika Innsikt. Creator and host is Esmaralda Colombo, Producer is Mainstream AS.

Episode 1;Epistemic Communities: The Role of Scientists for Deep Decarbonization.

The first episode is onEpistemic Communities: The Role of Scientists for Deep Decarbonization, hosting philosopher Associate Professor Kjetil Rommetveit. Kjetil takes us onto a journey to discoverhow social and natural scientists are working together across sectors to support policy making—often to better up national and global climate politics, and offer new perspectives, or imaginations, on reality.To thispoint, he is the editor of the book 'Post-truth Imaginations' forthcoming for Routledge in 2021.

Episode 2:The ClimateCasino: Drilling Down on the Norwegian Climate Change Case

The second episode focuses on the economic analyses for expanding the petroleum industry in the Norwegian Arctic, which constituted one of the objects of controversy in the one and only lawsuit ever filed in climate change matters in Norway,People v Arctic Oil. The government's economic analyses on the expansion of thepetroleum industrybecame controversial as independent experts showed that drilling in the Arctic can be socially unprofitable for the Norwegian society.The name of this second episodeisThe ClimateCasino: Drilling Down on the Norwegian Climate Change Case, hosting the two expert witnesses in the case, Prof. Mads Greaker and Prof. Knut Einar Rosendhal, who collaborated with lawyers and wrote a landmark report.

Episode 3:The Green Tumbling: Can Sustainable Finance Combat Climate Change?

The third episode,The Green Tumbling: Can Sustainable Finance Combat Climate Change?,delves into sustainable finance withLisa Sachs, the Director of the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment in New York City. So-called "sustainable investment" funds grew in both number and value over 2020, as the real economy shuddered from the effects of COVID-19. At the same time, a growing number of companies, investors and banks are making net-zero commitments, while financing for fossil fuel infrastructure continues to grow. Lisa will help us understand these trends, how to decipher meaningful commitments and action from greenwashing, and what steps are needed to align the financial sector with the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Agreement.