During her internship, Sandra was responsible for different tasks, focusing on the research topic of climate mainstreaming. Within this topic, she reviewed various NDCs, climate risk profiles and climate energy partnerships. Furthermore, she conducted research for the BMZ on digitalization and its associated carbon footprint and country energy mix. This research was done to advise the Ministry on various policy positions and projects.
In addition to this, Sandra has done research on strategic climate cooperation and NDC partnerships as part of the climate mainstreaming theme. Some examples include Rwanda, South Africa and India. Through this research, Sandra has been able to analyze how best to integrate climate considerations into projects or development assistance within BMZ, mainly in the energy sector. BMZ, BMWK and BMU then provide funding for specific strategic climate cooperations to push forward climate protection and adaptation, specifically in the energy sectors of partner countries.
Sandra has really enjoyed her time in the sector project. Not only was she given a lot of responsibility, but she was also able to strengthen her team and her creative problem-solving skills. She would not only recommend her sector, but GIZ as an institution as a whole. In the future, Sandra will complete her studies in the Elite Graduate Program "Global Change Ecology" within the Elite Network by conducting research on the topic of the impact of extreme events on conflict prediction. Her inspiration for the topic comes from the course "Climate Diplomacy" taught by Prof. Dr. Charlotte Streck at the University of Bayreuth. Her research is supervised by Prof. Dr. Cyrus Samimi from the University of Bayreuth together with Dr. Barbora Sedova from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). In addition, Sandra has already been offered a PhD position at the Institute and hopes to start this autumn.
Text: Alex Nadolny, Elite Graduate Program "Global Change Ecology"
