Esmeralda Colombo: Climate Risk
Esmeralda Colombo has received two rounds of CET Accelerator funding. Both grants allowed her to expand her network as a young researcher and communicate her research.
Main content
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 Det norske paradokset» i Klimasøksmål Arktis: ein rettsleg analyse av økonomiske vurderingar, Retfærd (2020), Volume 2, 47-70 and a Research Council of Norway project application.
The Accelerator Seed Funding that CET generously entrusted me with in February 2019 allowed me to achieve what, at first glance, had seemed impossible for a junior female researcher: start an international network and organize a conference on 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 a series of three podcasts on Climate Risk and Democratic Energy Policies: Climatenergy Talk! The podcast series aims to communicate to the larger public on the role of science - the social and natural sciences - for depolarizing and democratizing energy policies. The series is endorsed by the Norwegian Climate Foundation and Juridika 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 on Epistemic Communities: The Role of Scientists for Deep Decarbonization, hosting philosopher Associate Professor Kjetil Rommetveit. Kjetil takes us onto a journey to discover how 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 this point, he is the editor of the book 'Post-truth Imaginations' forthcoming for Routledge in 2021.
Episode 2: The Climate Casino: 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 the petroleum industry became controversial as independent experts showed that drilling in the Arctic can be socially unprofitable for the Norwegian society. The name of this second episode is The Climate Casino: 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 with Lisa 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.
About climate risk
Project 1
- Title: Climate risk and sustainable performance
- Funding type: seed funding
- Grant: 120 300
- Project period: Feb 2019 - April 2020
Project 2
- Title: Climate Risk and Democratic Energy Policies
- Funding type: Ideas and communication
- Grant: 25 000
- project period: Dec 2020 - June 2021
CET Accelerator funding
The CET Accelerator is a mechanism to stimulate activity within the overall scope of the CET.
Open for CET Affiliates.
Three types of funding are available:
- Ideas and communication up to NOK 100.000
- Seed Funding up to NOK 200.000
- Co-funding up to NOK 1million.
