Transition of her own, from Law to Climate Policy

Carolina Aguirre Echeverri, F14

Early in her career Carolina Aguirre Echeverri, F14 felt called to adopt a different path than that of an attorney as originally planned. After being the lead negotiator for the Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the Convention on Biological Diversity and, in her advisory role, helping to propose what came to be known as the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), she recognized that climate policy and public service inspired her and motivated her to action.

Thanks to her husband, a Tufts alumnus, and conversations with Fletcher students who spoke highly of their experiences, she landed in Medford in the MALD program. Carolina credits her Fletcher education with strengthening the soft skills needed to maintain relationships with different stakeholders and developing key analytical skills during her challenging economics and finance classes that have proven to be essential in her work in climate policy and energy finance.

One night over dinner Carolina’s Fletcher roommate asked her what her dream internship would look like. Carolina replied that she wanted to work in the US at an organization with a great climate program. “I just started naming these big organizations and my roommate goes, ‘I know someone from The Nature Conservancy. Do you want me to connect you?’ and that’s how I got my first internship at TNC,” she states, illustrating the global power of the Fletcher network even as a student. Her internship experience culminated in a job opportunity when in 2014 she became a part of the Climate Finance team of the UNFCCC COP20 Presidency held by Peru and a Climate Finance Advisor to the Peruvian Green Climate Fund Co-Chair.

Carolina considers her role as Climate Finance Officer for the UN Secretary-General’s Climate Action Team to be some of the most rewarding work she has done to date. The demands of its political deliberations and responsibilities of working for the Secretary-General taught her much. 

When thinking about how she ended up in her current position in climate philanthropy at the Growald Climate Fund as an Associate Director in field innovation, she says, “My career has taken many turns, and sometimes it feels like serendipity.” She enjoys being creative in thinking through the economics of the transition to clean energy for developing countries, and offering guidance on policy and the practical bottlenecks and hurdles that may hinder these efforts.