For Carolina, who works at the E3G think tank in Brussels, being a policy advisor on climate change adaptation requires one to be adaptable and patient. Today she’s sharing with us insights into the day-to-day tasks, stress and joys in her job, as well as her first-hand experience in the recent COP27.

Listen to the podcast or read the transcript below.

Greensider: Can you tell us what is it like to be a policy advisor on climate change related topics?

Carolina: I'm a policy advisor for Climate Risk and Resilience. My job has two components. One is researching the latest science on climate risk. The second one is producing analysis and recommendations based on that science and what countries and institutions are doing, trying to improve their resilience against climate change. For example, my latest experience was attending the COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh in the last month.

Greensider: Is it okay to share some of your first-hand experience and thoughts about COP27?

Carolina: Happy to! For full disclosure, COP27 was my first COP ever. I was mainly following two topics: Loss and Damage, and Adaptation in Climate Change. In case some people are wondering, Loss and Damage is the result of impacts from climate change that occur when both mitigation and adaptation have failed. Communities are left with both economic, non-economic losses and damages. For example, losing their homes, livelihoods; non-economic losses such as their culture.

COP27 was very intense, but very exciting. My think tank was registered as an observer. That means I was allowed to go into the negotiating rooms. It was useful for my work because I got to understand what countries were saying and their positions. The other part of COP was the many high level events happening at the same time with different actors making announcements. That was also important for me to get a sense of the political dimensions on different topics.

Behind the scenes, part of my work, together with NGOs, other think tanks and organisations, was to arrange bilaterals with actors and countries, host private events and try to advise them and share some intel. We also talked to journalists who are always looking for our perspective on how the negotiations are going.

Greensider: That sounds quite demanding and big bravo to your hard work! But would you say it's a stressful job? How do you handle it?

Carolina: Well, sometimes you don't! It's a job with highs and lows in terms of stress. When there is a big conference like COP, workloads will be high and pressure will increase. You'll have to do a bit of a crunch to go over the finish line. But I think everyone working on climate right now can say that there's always something happening all the time.

It's also important to try to prioritise and remember the amazing community that exists. We're not doing this by ourselves, so we don't have to feel like we should carry the load all by ourselves. That does help manage a bit of the stress.

Greensider: I can totally resonate since I work from home building this platform, sometimes it can feel a bit lonely. But by doing these Greensider interviews such as this one, I know that there are many people who are in this together with me. That helps keep my motivation up.

Now let's talk about something more positive. What is your favourite part of this job?

Carolina: Like you mentioned, the opportunity to get to meet people from all of the world who are working on these different sites to tackle climate change. For example, you're building this platform, which will bring together so many different actors that you might think at first they would never interact. Now you're giving them the opportunity to come together in one place and share their knowledge and experiences. I think that's definitely one of the most positive ones.

Particularly in my field in climate risk, I feel very interested in the fact that I get to translate ‘science’ into something that not only decision makers can understand but also trying to raise awareness to the general population in different parts of the world.

My focus is mostly in the EU, but there are colleagues within my organisation also focusing on the US and countries in the Global South. That sense of trying to translate something that might look very complex into a language that is understood by as many people as possible and that resonates within their local knowledge, but also their local experiences and how we can improve that to make sure that they become more resilient in the future - that's also one of the most challenging but also most rewarding things I do in my job.

Greensider: In terms of career development, what does it take to be a policy advisor? Judging from your own career experience, what were the most critical things that led you to this stage?

Carolina: It was my past experience which was in the beginning mostly focused on security and international relations. That experience has given me the tools to be able to engage with different types of factors, which it's also something that you need to be able to do working in climate policy.

Next thing is being able to adapt - no pun intended - your speech and the way you write to your audience. The way you speak or try to target an international institution will be very different from the way you want to reach out to a local NGO or a government. It’s important to bear in mind who you want to target and why.

The most essential thing for anyone who wants to pursue a career in climate is to have patience because it takes time. Sometimes things do not go as fast as we would have hoped or as science is showing us that we should be acting on. But transformation is possible and you just have to be very patient and bear in mind that you will not get all the wins. Make sure you celebrate the ones that you do because they're very important to also keep you motivated.

Greensider: Finally, do you have any advice for people who want to pursue a similar career path in climate change policy?

Carolina: I would say do it. The more, the merrier! On a more serious note, I'd say to keep an open mind. There are so many possibilities out there. Sometimes, I think it can be a bit overwhelming not knowing what exists, or knowing so much that exists and you don’t know where to start off. You can work for an NGO, a think tank, a government's entity or an international organisation. There are a lot of options out there and I think more will come in the future.

Even if someone thinks that their past experience might not seem related to climate change but they feel like they want to pursue this in the future, I would say don't give up because mainstreaming climate is part of the future. Therefore, every tool, every experience that you have will be an added value and won't be a barrier to pursue that career related to climate change policy.