Jessica Omukuti awarded COP26 Fellowship

Dr Jessica Omukuti has been awarded a prestigious 26th Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26) Fellowship, to conduct research on scaling climate finance in the run-up to COP26 in Glasgow in 2021. 

The 12-month Fellowship, funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), through the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), will focus on the local delivery of multilateral climate finance, specifically through the Green Climate Fund. 

The Fellowship will build on Jessica’s current and previous research on climate finance and climate justice and will address a key knowledge and policy gap on understanding whether multilateral climate finance delivery mechanisms support the allocation of climate finance to local level actions that contribute towards the reduction of local-level vulnerability and support towards adaptation. 

During the Fellowship, Jessica will collaborate with members of the COP26 Universities Network which is made up of academic researchers from universities in the UK whose research is linked to climate change. She will also engage with policy actors from developing countries to understand their engagement with the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and local delivery of climate finance. 

The outputs from the research will be presented at events in the run-up to and at the COP26 in Glasgow. 

Jessica will work with Professors Piran White and Robert Marchant from the Department of Environment and Geography at the University of York and Dr. Sam Barrett from the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).