We are delighted to announce the recipients of the Climate Hub Rio's inaugural grants to faculty members from six schools within Columbia University, following a rigorous selection process. These awardees will embark on groundbreaking research projects in Brazil, thanks to the seed funding provided through this program, which offers a unique opportunity for faculty members to contribute to climate-related research in Brazil. With the support of the Columbia Global Center in Rio de Janeiro, our winners will be able to leverage the Center's decade-long experience and extensive partnerships in Rio and Brazil to facilitate and monitor their research.
More information on each winner and project is available below:
- OreOluwa Badaki, Amplifying Climate Change Education and Communication in Brazil
- Michael Burger, Climate Litigation in Brazil
- Steven Cohen, Climate Change Awareness and Engaging Vulnerable Communities in the City of Niterói, Brazil
- Erik Funkhouser, Leveraging opportunities in the U.S. market to commercialize Brazilian negative emissions and carbon market-enabling technology innovation
- Duy Linh Tu, Extreme Weather and Human Risk in Rio
- Harry Verhoeven, The Political Economy of Green Innovation in Brazil
OREOLUWA BADAKI
Postdoctoral Fellow | Teachers College, Columbia University
Project: Amplifying Climate Change Education and Communication in Brazil
OreOluwa Badaki is a postdoctoral fellow at Teachers College, Columbia University. Bridging research in critical literacy studies, multimodal scholarship, and environmental justice, she examines how power moves through bodies and spaces within food and land systems. As a writer, movement practitioner, and educator, Badaki works with youth and communities to explore environmental justice through the creative and performing arts. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education, where her dissertation on the creative literacy practices of youth of color working in urban agriculture received the Ralph C. Preston Award for Scholarship and Teaching Contributing to Social Justice. Prior to her doctoral work, Badaki was a middle school language arts teacher and an education researcher with the United Nations, focusing on education for sustainable development and the cultural and creative industries. Badaki’s current projects focus on embodied understandings of place and center African diasporic experiences with food and land.
"I'm grateful for this opportunity to build on existing collaborations with Brazilian scholars, artists, activists and educators who are telling more robust and incisive stories about climate change. I look forward to deepening my work in creative climate education and communications by spending more time with collectives in Brazil that are asking similar questions as I am about the the intersections between African diasporic dance and agricultural traditions, and the implications of these intersections for climate justice movements."
MICHAEL BURGER
Executive Director | Sabin Center for Climate Change Law
Senior Research Scholar and Lecturer-in-Law | Columbia Law School
Project: Climate Litigation in Brazil
Michael Burger is the executive director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. He oversees a dynamic team of attorneys working in eight program areas to combat climate change. His research and advocacy focus on legal strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote climate change adaptation through pollution control, resource management, land use planning, and green finance. Michael frequently collaborates with researchers across Columbia's Earth Institute, and with local and national environmental groups, government representatives, and international organizations. He is a widely published scholar, a frequent speaker at conferences and symposiums, and a regular source for media outlets, including The Washington Post, Newsweek, Time, Forbes, The Guardian, Bloomberg, and Vox.com. He has been featured on Science Friday and Living on Earth.
"Brazil is a hotbed of climate litigation, and a policymaker of global importance in the climate field. We are excited for the opportunity to expand and deepen our partnerships with scholars and practitioners focused on climate law and policy in Brazil."
STEVEN COHEN
Professor of Professional Practice | School of International and Public Affairs
Senior Vice Dean | School of Professional Studies
Director, Research Program on Sustainability Policy & Management | Columbia Climate School
Project: Climate Change Awareness and Engaging Vulnerable Communities in the City of Niterói, Brazil
Steven Cohen is the senior vice dean of Columbia’s School of Professional Studies and a professor in the practice of Public Affairs at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. Cohen is the former executive director of Columbia University’s Earth Institute and now serves as a senior advisor for the Institute. He is a former policy analyst and consultant to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Cohen has served on numerous boards and committees, including the Board of the Pew Faculty Fellowship in International Affairs, the Executive Committee and Committee on Accreditation and Peer Review of the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Advisory Council on Environmental Policy and Technology. He currently serves on the board of directors of Homes for the Homeless, on the board of directors of the Willdan Group, Inc., on the advisory board of the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment, and on the steering committee for the Porter School of Environmental Studies at Tel Aviv University. Cohen also serves on the judging committee for the Yidan Prize Foundation and is the chair of the Lotos Club’s Science and Technology Committee.
"This project is an important continuation of the Research Program on Sustainability Policy & Management’s work and allows us to build upon a current research partnership with one of our longtime collaborators. We are grateful to the Columbia Global Centers | Rio for facilitating this opportunity, which will leverage the strengths of multiple partners and create meaningful discussions of climate change awareness and sustainability informed by the latest scientific knowledge."
ERIK FUNKHOUSER
Managing Director | Carbontech Development Initiative, Center on Global Energy Policy, School of International and Public Affairs
Project: Leveraging opportunities in the U.S. market to commercialize Brazilian negative emissions and carbon market-enabling technology innovation
Erik Funkhouser is the managing director of the Carbontech Development Initiative at the Center on Global Energy Policy. Since 2013, Erik has worked as an expert in emerging technology innovation and diffusion, focusing on market development, market transformation, and research, development, and demonstration. Most recently Erik was Director for Research Coordination and Partnerships at the University of Texas at Austin Energy Institute, where he managed the research, development, and demonstration programs and external relations. Erik received a Master’s Degree in public affairs from the same university in 2013.
"Carbon management technologies are critical for all pathways to meet the IPCC benchmark of removing 6 GtCO2e annually to limit global warming to a 1.5°C. Recent policy efforts have accelerated the pace of technology development but to truly scale a sector adequate to the challenge will require universal buy-in and coordination of expertise from around the world. The Carbontech Development Initiative (CDI) is excited for this opportunity to partner with the Columbia University Global Center in Rio de Janeiro to support development of multi-national collaborations and knowledge and human capital exchange among highly skilled and talented entrepreneurs and scientists working to advance the carbontech sector globally."
DUY LINH TU
Professor of Professional Practice | Columbia Journalism School
Project: Extreme Weather and Human Risk in Rio
Duy Linh Tu is a journalist and documentary filmmaker, focusing on education, science, and social justice. His work has appeared in print, online, on television, and in theaters. He is also the author of Narrative Storytelling for Multimedia Journalists (Focal Press). Professor Tu teaches reporting and video storytelling courses at the Journalism School. He is also a graduate of the program.
"The Rio Climate grant will be invaluable to my work in covering environmental and climate issues. This award will allow me to make and build important connections with students, scientists, and journalists in Brazil so that I can expand my reporting on critical issues affecting the people of Rio."
HARRY VERHOEVEN
Senior Research Scholar | Center on Global Energy Policy, School of International and Public Affairs
Project: The Political Economy of Green Innovation in Brazil
Harry Verhoeven is a senior research scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy, focusing on the political economy of climate change, international relations, and the linkages between water, energy, and food security. His regional focus is on Africa, the Middle East, and the Western Indian Ocean. Verhoeven is a senior advisor to the European Institute of Peace. He also founded the Oxford University China-Africa Network in 2009 and remains its convenor. He is an associate member of the Department of Politics & International Relations at the University of Oxford and was a visiting scholar at the Department of Politics and International Studies of the University of Cambridge. He has collaborated extensively with key policy actors, including the World Bank, the European Union, various agencies of the United Nations, governments in Africa, Europe, the Middle East and North America, and non-governmental organizations. For more than a decade, he has served as an expert witness in various legal cases pertaining to mass atrocities, development-induced displacement, and human rights violations in various African states.
"Brazil is at the heart of the most pressing environmental crises of today but also of efforts to fast-track energy transitions, nurture an inclusive bio-economy and adapt to climatic changes. It is incredibly exciting to be granted the unique opportunity to study these developments more closely and to better understand how what is happening in Brazil could be of relevance to developing countries across the world."