Sarah Colenbrander is the Director of the Climate and Sustainability Programme at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI). She is an environmental economist, specializing in cities, climate change and sustainable finance. Over the last decade, Sarah has supported policymakers across Asia, Africa and Latin America to develop climate-compatible development strategies.
Before joining ODI, Ms. Colenbrander was Head of Global Programmes for the Coalition for Urban Transitions – a network of 35 organizations (including ODI) that supports national governments to identify and implement the deep structural shifts needed to foster productive, inclusive, sustainable cities. She was the lead author of Climate Emergency, Urban Opportunity, the report that underpinned the Infrastructure, Cities and Local Action track of the 2019 UN Climate Summit.
Ms. Colenbrander has also worked on climate change mitigation in cities, energy and forestry at IIED, the University of Leeds and Forests Alive. She has co-authored a wide range of academic papers, as well as reports for the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, UN Environment and the World Bank. Sarah is an associate of the ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy and a guest lecturer at the University of Oxford, University College London and the University of Manchester. Ms. Colenbrander holds a Master’s in Environment and Development from Trinity College, Dublin.
