CIERP Internships: Bolstering cities’ climate finance prospects with CDP

By Emily Dahl

Emily Dahl, GBA ‘23

Since coming to Fletcher in the Fall of 2021, I’ve been working to apply my climate and sustainability communications leadership background to transition to a new post-graduation career in climate program development and management. With the broad and deep climate curriculum, I’ve gained a range of skills and honed others. This summer, I deeply valued the opportunity to apply these learnings while gaining experience in climate finance and resilience as a Sustainable Infrastructure Fellow for CDP North America.

CDP runs the global disclosure system through which investors, companies, state, cities, and regions share and manage their environmental impacts. As a Fellow, I worked with CDP North America’s Cities, States, and Regions team, whose Matchmaker initiative highlights municipal sustainable infrastructure projects in need of financing—and collaborates with local governments to help them build capacity for securing financing through its Catalyze Cohort.

I was fortunate to contribute to CDP’s 2022 US Infrastructure Snapshot report, which analyzes disclosures from reporting cities regarding projects in need of funding by region and sector. 188 projects valued at approximately $29.6 million USD were identified—just a fraction of the overall US sustainable infrastructure finance gap. Developing case studies of highlighted projects that would provide economic, environmental, and social benefits to communities made it clearer than ever to me that resilient infrastructure will play a vital role in protecting people and developing thriving communities in the face of climate change.

I also wrote a forthcoming guide to climate finance for US cities, for which I discussed the process for developing enabling environments, embedding equity, accessing technical assistance, preparing projects, and securing financing—synthesizing and sharing related resources from numerous organizations. The guide, supported by the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, will serve as a template for CDP finance guides geared toward Indonesian and Brazilian cities.

As another element of my fellowship, I worked with the team to develop workshop and webinar programming for government officials, including a program with the US Department of Energy on accessing technical assistance and funding for building energy efficiency available through the new Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and other sources.

It was such a pleasure to work with my incredible CDP colleagues, whose subject matter expertise and commitment to helping cities develop sustainably and equitably inspired me every day—particularly my manager Naina Chawla F’21 and the rest of my team, led by Katie Walsh F’14. I appreciate the many friendly team members throughout the global organization who took time to get to know me and learn about my future career interests. I am also grateful to CIERP for supporting this opportunity.

This fall—my last term at Fletcher—I’ll look forward to bringing my summer experiences into my coursework on climate risk and adaptation, market approaches to financial inclusion, and global perspectives on water security. Through my practicum with the US Department of Energy and Professor Amy Myers Jaffe on equitably addressing energy poverty, I’ll continue developing an understanding of how best to support communities in building a just and sustainable future. ∎

Emily Dahl is a Master of Global Affairs Candidate at The Fletcher School.