Project Director, and co-lead for the Lytton B.C. case study. She is Professor of Environmental Sociology in the Department of Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology in the University of Alberta, having received her Master’s in Environmental Studies (1994) and Doctorate in Sociology (1998), both from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Recent recipient of the Killam Annual Professorship (2019) and the Frederick H. Buttel International Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Environmental Sociology (2022), she is internationally recognized for her contributions to environmental sociology and climate social sciences. Her research and teaching focuses on the social dimensions of climate change and energy systems, as presented in several books and journal articles published in top Sociology and Science journals, such as Social Problems, Science, Nature Energy, and WIRES Climate Change. Dr. Davidson has extensive previous experience as Principal or co-Investigator Investigator on several large interdisciplinary research teams, and has supervised 24 graduate students to successful degree completion. Dr. Davidson also has extensive experience with international, policy-relevant collaborative initiatives including former Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Working Group II, Assessment Report 5), and has recently been nominated to serve on the United Nations Environmental Programme Foresight Expert Panel.

Professor of Social Geography and Sustainability Research at LMU Munich, Germany, and will serve as project Co-Director, and member of the Comparative Analysis Group. Her education and professional development reflect a strong commitment to interdisciplinarity. She has made internationally recognized contributions to the conceptual and methodological advancement of social scientific and interdisciplinary sustainability research on topics such as domestic energy use and mobility practices across the life course. She has published 80+ peer-reviewed articles, book chapters and edited collections, including 'Methods of Sustainability Research in the Social Sciences' (Sage, 2013), 'Challenging Consumption' (Routledge, 2014) and 'Mobility and Travel Behaviour across the Life Course' (Edward Elgar, 2020). Between 2016 and 2019 she led cutting-edge social science research on energy consumption in households as part of the Horizon 2020 funded ENERGISE project (https://energise-project.eu/). She is currently leading research on consumption and circularity as part of the four-year Horizon Europe project CircEUlar (www.circeular.org).

Co-PI and co-lead for the Los Angeles and Mexico City case studies. She a Sociology Professor and recipient of a Canada Excellence Research Chair in Sustainability Transitions at the University of Toronto, Scarborough. Her research and teaching focus on crucial links among people and climate in urban areas. She applies a transdisciplinary lens and community-engagement methods to projects such as the LA100 Equity Strategies, which involves a community-informed analysis of barriers and strategies to improve equity in Los Angeles’ 100% clean energy transition. With 148 peer-reviewed publications in Nature, Global Environmental Change and other journals, her leadership has garnered international recognition. Paty has extensive experience as a sociologist working across disciplines, and at the science-policy interface. She was the co-leading author of Working Group II of the Nobel Prize-winning IPCC Fourth Assessment Report. She is an editorial board member of several journals.

Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Calgary, she will serve as member of the Canada consortium team and will co-lead the Lytton case study. Gwendolyn has interdisciplinary training, with an undergraduate degree in Microbiology and graduate training in Cultural Studies (PhD, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill). Research and teaching examine social contexts, representational politics, and power dynamics that inform public debates about issues that involve science and technology. Academic publications and funded research examine limitations to democratic politics in issues such as climate change, environmental health, and genomics, and draw attention to the need to situate participation within broader frameworks of social justice, material politics, and responsible research and innovation. She has worked in an advisory capacity at the science-policy interface, most recently on an expert panel with the Canadian Council of Academies.

eona Humchitt is a matriarchal leader in climate action and sustainability, serving as the Climate Action Coordinator for the Haiłzaqv Nation in Bella Bella, BC. With over four years of experience, she combines Indigenous wisdom and modern solutions to protect biodiversity and secure food sovereignty for future generations. As a grandmother of 11, her work is deeply personal, driven by a vision of a thriving planet for her descendants.

Leona and her husband Tom developing Heiltsuk Wáwadi Kelp, a regenerative venture focused on sustainable kelp systems, and is a champion for decarbonizing Coastal First Nations' territories through the Indigenous Off-Diesel Initiative. She holds an MBA in Indigenous Business and Leadership, and her influence extends as an Energy Champion and Advisory Board member for BC’s Remote Community Energy Strategy.

Grounded in her connection to family, sprit, and nation, Leona’s journey is one of empowering communities, advancing clean energy, and honoring the land for generations to come.

Co-lead of the Mexico City case study. She has a PhD in Social Sciences with a specialty in Society and the Territory from the Autonomous Metropolitan University (UAM). She was Director of the Department of Politics and Culture of the UAM, Xochimilco, where she was also editor of the Journal of Politics and Culture, coordinator of the undergraduate program in Social Politics and Management. Currently she coordinates de Masters in Public Policies, awarded by the National System of Investigators with level I. She has coordinated and participated in various national and international research projects on climate change policies, institutional capacities of governments and evaluation of environmental public programs and governmental performance. She has 75 peer- reviewed chapters and articles in national and international journals and has mentored 75 undergraduate and graduate students.

Co-Investigator and co-lead for the Los Angeles case study. He is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the department of Urban Planning the Research and Co-Executive Director of the Luskin Center for Innovation at UCLA. He is also the director of the UCLA Water Resources Group within the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, and faculty affiliate of the Center for Healthy Climate Solutions. Dr. Pierce’s research, teaching and service is motivated by persistent inequities in access to the essential environmental services that we need to survive and thrive, including recent work on an equitable energy transition with LA City and community based organizations. He has secured 40+ extramural research funding awards as a principal investigator and authored 50+ peer-reviewed articles. Greg received a Ph.D. in urban planning in 2015 and an M.A. in urban planning in 2011, both from UCLA.

Jennie C. Stephens is a feminist, climate justice scholar-activist and Professor of Climate Justice at Maynooth University’s ICARUS Climate Research Centre in Ireland. She was a Climate Justice Fellow at Harvard-Radcliffe (2023-2024), and her book Climate Justice and the University: Shaping a Hopeful Future For All (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2024) proposes a paradigm shift to reimagine and restructure higher education to facilitate transformative social change toward a more just, healthy and stable future for all. Her research, teaching, and community engagement focus on integrating transformative social justice, feminist, anti-racist, decolonial perspectives into climate and energy policy, fossil fuel phaseout, the renewable energy transition, energy democracy, gender in energy and climate, and climate justice in higher education. 

In her 2020 book Diversifying Power: Why We Need Antiracist, Feminist Leadership on Climate and Energy (Island Press), she argues that effectively addressing climate change requires diversifying leadership, redistributing wealth and power, and moving beyond mainstream male-dominated technocratic solutions to climate change. 

Co-Investigator and co-lead for the Mumbai case study, Ian Hamilton is Professor of Energy, Environment and Health at UCL Energy Institute, and Vice-Dean Research at The Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment, University College London

Ian’s research in the built environment is at the intersection of climate, energy and health. His research background is in evaluating climate mitigation actions and energy efficiency in the built environment their impact on energy demand and building energy performance, along with indoor and outdoor environmental conditions, and associated health and wellbeing outcomes. Ian was the Operating Agent for the International Energy Agency’s Annex 70 - Building Energy Epidemiology. He is currently a co-investigator on the UKRI Centre for Research into Energy Demand Solutions, the NERC APEx London Air Pollution and ANTICIPATE project, and the Horizon’s Climate Action to Advance Healthy Societies. He has worked with the IEA and UN Environment Programme to develop the Global and Regional Roadmaps for Buildings and Construction for Africa, Asia and Latin America, and has co-led the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction’s Buildings Global Status Reports since 2018.

Researcher co-investigator and co- lead for the Mumbai case study. He is Lecturer (Teaching) in Circular Economy and Resource Efficiency at UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources, University College London. Harshavardhan holds BArch (Architecture), MSc International Cooperation and Urban Development (specialization Development Economics) and PhD in Development Planning. He has experience of researching on the topics of land, energy, and material efficiency in the global south, with a focus on participatory methodologies, informal settlements, indigenous peoples, and colonialism. He recently led the UN Environment Programme’s ‘Resource Efficiency and Climate Change: Material Efficiency Strategies for Low-Carbon Futures in Residential Construction Sector’ reports for Argentina, Indonesia and Mexico. Harshavardhan currently serves as Inclusion Lead at the Bartlett School of Environment, Energy and Resources, University College London.

Co-lead of the Tamale (Ghana) case. Antje Bruns holds a full professorship for Sustainable Development and Governance at the Geography Department, Trier University (Germany). Antje is a Human Geographer, received her Diploma from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and her doctoral degree from Kiel University. Her research focus is on climate governance with a particular focus on energy and water (security) and infrastructural politics that craft a place-specific nexus between climate, energy and water. She has vast research experience in West-Africa and Ghana in particular, where she was head of the transdisciplinary project WaterPower. She is member of the German Academy of Territorial Development (ARL), was part of the Pan-African Union Expert Panel PAULESI and several international networks such as the Environmental Justice Network (EnJust) and the Earth System Governance Project (ESG).

Co-lead of the Tamale case study, and serve on the Ethics, EDI, Indigenous and Community Advisory Council. He is a senior lecturer in urban sustainability at the Department of Urban Design and Infrastructure Studies at UBIDS, Ghana. He has an interdisciplinary background in planning (BSc), environmental governance (MSc), and sustainability science (PhD, 2018). His research and teaching focus on water, energy, and food systems in cities and their implications for urban sustainability transitions, with books and journal articles published in high impact factor journals such as Nature Human Behavior, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Cleaner Production, Energy Policy, and Land Use Policy. He is a recipient of the Green Talent Award and Alexander von Humboldt fellowship.

Co-lead of the Trondheim/Trøndelag case. He is Senior researcher at Ruralis, Norway and Associate Director of the Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis (CCEA) at the University of Connecticut. Dr. Graziano’s research lays at the confluence of the Food-Energy-Water- Society Nexus and regional economic development. Marcello’s previous works include two seminal papers on the diffusion of renewable energy technologies, and extensive work within the Blue Economy. These works led Marcello to serve as an advisor to the Great Lakes Commission in 2019/2020. Marcello is currently co-leading a new program funded by Eversource Energy for identifying skills needed in the green transition in Connecticut, focusing on expanding access to these opportunities to parents of young children. Marcello holds a B.Sc. in Foreign Trade & Economics (2007), M.Sc. in International Economics from the University of Turin (Italy), and a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Connecticut.

Assisting in the Trøndelag case. She is a senior researcher at Ruralis and holds a Ph.d in Political Science and a MPhil in Development Studies from NTNU. Her research addresses energy transitions in cross cultural contexts, and alternative finance for climate mitigation measures. She is an expert in Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and leading a work package in the international project “Civic Renewables Development of collaborative approaches to civic renewable energy for sustainable rural development and land use”.

Assistin in the Trøndelag case. He is Associate Professor at Aalborg University and Senior Scientist at Ruralis. His research focuses on democratization processes and conflicts in energy transitions. A member of the Nordic Mediator Association, Kristian also serves as a Member of the Norwegian-EU reference group to Cluster 5 (Climate, energy, and mobility).

Co-leading the Trøndelag case, Katrina is a senior researcher at Ruralis, and holds a Ph.d in geography from NTNU and a M.Sc. in land use planning from NMBU. Her research covers commodification, marginalisation and conservation processes in rural areas, land use and rights linked to the commons, agriculture, aquaculture and ocean, wind energy, and indigenous land use under the ‘green shift’. She is currently coordinating the research project ‘Funding Future Welfare: Bioeconomy as the «New Oil» and the Sharing of Benefits from Natural Resources’ (funded by the Research Council of Norway).

Juan Andrés holds a degree in Agricultural Engineering from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. His work has focused on supporting peasant communities in southern Chile in strengthening their resilience to climate change, food security, and food sovereignty through agroecological transition processes, revaluation of traditional knowledge and community participation and involvement. He is currently pursuing a Master's degree in Rural Sociology at the Department of Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology (REES) at the University of Alberta, Canada, where he is also a research assistant.

Serving as member of the Comparative Analysis Group, Emanuela is a Postdoctoral researcher based in Maynooth University, Ireland. She holds a PhD in Politics from University College Dublin, and a MA in International Development from the University of Manchester. Her research focuses on place-based community resistance to large scale extractive projects through a transdisciplinary lens that spans sociology, anthropology, political ecology, and policy analysis. A latecomer to the world of academia, she has been previously involved for many years in international frontline human rights work and grassroots environmental campaigning.