WORK OVERVIEW

Avantika Goswami

Avantika Avantika leads the Climate Change Programme at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) as a Programme Manager. She has 10+ years of experience across the public, private and non-profit sectors, with an interdisciplinary background in climate and economic research, sustainability program management, and management consulting.

Her interests lie at the intersection of climate science and political economy, and her current work focuses on transformative solutions to rapidly reduce carbon emissions while centering climate justice and equity. At CSE, she is leading the Institute's climate policy research and advocacy spanning climate finance, mitigation ambition, carbon markets, methane, forest-based mitigation, trade, and the tracking of UNFCCC negotiations. She has represented CSE at all COP summits and Subsidiary Body meetings since 2021. She is also a member of the Political Coordination Group of Climate Action Network (International) – a global network of 2,000 climate-focused civil society organizations.

Prior to her role at CSE, she worked at the Earth Institute in New York City, as a Program Manager. In this role she interfaced with climate scientists and industry practitioners to expand the Institute’s sustainability education programs. Her experiences also include economic analysis and sustainability research for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the development of an implementation model for energy-efficient LED street lighting in Bogota, Colombia for a project with Bloomberg Associates, and strategy consulting across sectors such as energy, manufacturing, technology and finance as a Consultant at Aon Hewitt.

She has a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, and a Master of Science in Sustainability Management from Columbia University, New York. She has had professional engagements in India, the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the Maldives.

Email: avantika.goswami@cseindia.org

Trishant Dev

Trishant is a Programme Officer for the Climate Change Programme at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).

Trishant has participated in climate action initiatives, especially in the Agriculture, Forestry and Land Use (AFOLU) sector, research projects on carbon offsets, conservation research, ecosystem restoration, and indigenous rights issues.

Previously, as a climate fellow for the Climate Group working with the Chhattisgarh State Green Council to promote sub-national climate action, his work primarily focused on identifying opportunities for carbon financing adaptation projects, and he has conducted feasibility studies on the carbon offset potential of state-based initiatives.

Before his current role, Trishant worked as a conservation researcher, with a focus on studying the impact of relocating indigenous communities from protected areas, including, as a research assistant in a study project on the voluntariness of the relocation process commissioned by the Chhattisgarh State Planning Commission. His other projects were in the areas of man-animal conflict, environmental management plans, ecosystem services improvement, training and capacity building.

He has experience working with a diverse range of stakeholders, including the government, civil society organisations, rural communities, private enterprises and academia.

Email: trishant.dev@cseindia.org

Sehr Raheja

Sehr is a Programme Officer for the Climate Change Programme at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).

Sehr completed a Bachelor’s in Media Studies from the Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication (UG) in 2017. She then worked in the capacity of a campaigner with the Coastal Resource Centre, a project of the NGO The Other Media. Here she worked on the Save Ennore Creek campaign, a movement led by the fishing communities of North Chennai to safeguard the ecologically fragile Ennore Creek from unplanned industrial 'development' and pollution. She worked on the socio-environmental impacts of coal fired electricity generation from mines and power plants in select parts of Tamil Nadu.

As part of the summer school ‘Nayi Dishayein: Deconstructing Development’ at the Sambhaavnaa Institute of Public Policy & Politics, she interned with the Chhattisgarh based grassroots movement Hasdeo Arand Bachao Sangharsh Samiti (HASS) in 2018. Folllowing her time in the forest, Sehr worked with Manthan Adhyayan Kendra, a centre studying water and energy issues in India. As a researcher there, she studied the impacts of coal-based electricity generation on the environment and people, with a focus on water-related issues. Specifically, she also examined the social and environmental impacts and regulatory challenges related to coal's toxic solid waste, coal ash.

Sehr is interested in critical examinations of the energy transition, and is keen to explore questions of justice and development in the context of climate change.

Email: sehr.raheja@cseindia.org