I just graduated from Columbia | SIPA with a Master in Public Administration. I came to New York as a mathematician, new to the academic world of policy and memos. Here’s what I learnt.

1. During my studies I focused on climate risks, sustainable finance and energy decarbonisation. This taught me how economists and climate scientists measure climate damages, what the trade-offs are of climate mitigation, and how we can realistically meet net-zero GHG emissions.

2. Particularly insightful was the model I developed to evaluate the global cost of accelerated Amazon rainforest tipping with Gernot Wagner from Columbia Business School and Prof. Dr. Nico Wunderling from PIK – Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. Our study shows that current models are robust to faster tipping – but that global models underestimate the local damages of the Amazon rainforest turning into a Savannah.

3. For the Capstone project I developed a calculator to evaluate the emissions avoided by renewable energy projects in 6 African countries together with Energy Peace Partners. This was a challenging and interesting task – since we found that the energy sources (coal, gas, etc.) that households stop using once they have electricity vary significantly. This taught me how to adjust the mathematically optimal solution to the reality of data availability – and how to communicate the caveats for policy application.

The past year was a challenging one with life lessons I will take some time to digest. I want to thank all the people who helped me on my path – who built me up in difficult times and were there to enjoy the moments of celebration. I cannot wait to show you what is coming next.