From Data to Action: A Summer of Climate Finance at CDP
This past summer, I had the incredible opportunity to work as a Sustainable Infrastructure Fellow with CDP’s Climate Finance team under their Cities, States, and Regions (CSTaR) division. For those unfamiliar, CDP is a global non-profit organization that has revolutionized environmental reporting. CDP has the world’s largest, most comprehensive set of environmental data, which serves as a powerful tool for driving informed climate action among companies, cities, states, and public authorities worldwide. The climate finance team focuses on finance trends for a range of CSTaR sustainable infrastructure projects, including transportation, renewable energy, energy efficiency, waste management, and water management.
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Avsa Internship Reflection: Summer 2024
This summer, I had the privilege of visiting Avsa Island in Türkiye, where I worked closely with a local community that is grappling with both environmental and economic challenges. Through my internship with the Avsa Project, I gained firsthand experience in working toward environmentally sustainable solutions while exploring ways to empower the community economically.
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Summer at the United Nations: Lessons in Diplomacy, Climate Action, and Global Governance
I was assigned to work with the Second Committee of the UN General Assembly, which was quite relevant to my field of study at The Fletcher School: international development and environmental policy. On a daily basis, I supported Second Secretary Ms. Aleena Majeed (who leads Second Committee negotiations for Pakistan) in conducting research and assisting in drafting speeches, reports, and policy briefs for diplomatic use related to climate finance, just clean energy transition, AI governance, and finance for sustainable development.
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Inside the Indo-Pacific Command: A Summer Internship Experience in Environmental Security and Policy Development
This past summer, I participated in a ten-week internship with the Department of Defense's (DOD) Environmental Security Division (J445) at the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM), the oldest and largest of the unified combatant commands. USINDOPACOM is responsible for overseeing all U.S. military operations in the Indo-Pacific region, an area that spans over half of the Earth's surface. This experience provided me with invaluable insights into the intersection of environmental sustainability and national security.
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Time to celebrate rainbow and green pride
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ+) Pride Month is celebrated in June to honor the 1969 Stonewall Uprising, a tipping point for the Gay Liberation Movement in the United States. Pride Month is celebrated in several cities across the globe with unity and inclusion by organizing pride parades. The parades show a vibrant display of community spirit and often feature vibrant costumes, music, dance, food and art. However, these parades often rely on single-use plastics. Even during the parades, the desire for self-expression through costumes and attire can lead to increased consumption of new clothing—that means buying clothes every year for just one time use.
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