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Sarah Colenbrander

Sarah Colenbrander was a senior researcher in the Human Settlements research group until October 2018

Full biography
Expertise

• Financing urban infrastructure
• Urban governance for inclusion and sustainability
• Climate and energy policy in urban areas

Before IIED

• Research Fellow at the University of Leeds, United Kingdom
• Associate at the Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy

Education:
• MSc (Environment and Development) with Distinction at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
• BSc (Ecology) and BCom (Economics) with Distinction at the University of Sydney, Australia

Current work

I am the Global Programme Lead and Senior Economist with the Coalition for Urban Transitions, a network of 24 organisations from the research, government and private sector. The Coalition was established to support national economic decision-makers to enable low-carbon and climate-resilient urban development. I am responsible for conducting and managing high-quality and innovative research across the partner institutions. The 2017-2019 research programme focuses on national policy levers, financing urban infrastructure and the wider economic case for action.  

I also work closely with networks of grassroots organisations on innovative financing for basic infrastructure. In particular, I am working with SDI and the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights on securing access to multilateral climate funds and establishing partnerships with private actors such as commercial banks, property developers and engineering firms. Resourcing community-led processes in this way can foster more inclusive forms of urban development.  

In addition to academic publications, I have contributed to reports published by the World Bank, the New Climate Economy and UN Environment. I am also a guest lecturer at the University of Oxford, University College London and the University of Manchester, and serve as Associate Editor for the peer-reviewed journal Environment and Urbanization.

Interviews

IIED expert interviews: Sarah Colenbrander
Sarah Colenbrander's picture
Telephone: 
+44 (0) 20 3463 7399
Email: 
sarah.colenbrander@iied.org
Twitter: @s_colenbrander
ORCID
ResearchGate
Google Scholar
 

Sarah Colenbrander's blog posts

Nairobi in Kenya is one of many fast-growing cities across Africa (Photo: Stuart Price/Make it Kenya, Creative Commons via Flickr)

African cities can raise more money. Kenya and South Africa offer useful lessons

Blog, Oct 2018
Early morning in the Indonesian city of Jakarta reveals heavy air pollution, largely caused by its notorious traffic jams (Photo: Aaron Minnick/World Resources Institute, Creative Commons via Flickr)

How tackling climate change could tackle inequality

Blog, Jun 2018
Construction of Hyderabad’s new metro. The first phase, covering 30km and 24 stations, opened in November 2017 (Photo: banjaxx, Creative Commons via Flickr)

Financing sustainable infrastructure: a tale of two cities

Blog, Jan 2018
An aerial view of London. Southwark, on the left, is surprisingly undense (Photo: David, Bergin, Emmett and Elliott, Creative Commons, via Flickr)

How can compact cities keep house prices under control?

Blog, Sep 2017
A family living in a cemetery in Cebu City, the Philippines. A lack of affordable housing has led some 100 families to set up home among the mausoleums (Photo: Karl Fluch, Creative Commons via Flickr)

Who can we trust to measure urban poverty?

Blog, Jun 2017
The flag of the United Nations raised above the headquarters of the Habitat III Conference, held in Quito in Ecuador (Photo: Cancillería del Ecuador)

Sustainable cities: the nexus between resilience and resource efficiency

Blog, May 2017
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50 years linking local to global

Find out more about IIED’s plans in our 50th birthday year: our achievements and what comes next…

IIED's mission is to build a fairer, more sustainable world, using evidence, action and influence in partnership with others. We link local priorities and global challenges, and our 2019-2024 strategy details how we will Make Change Happen

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Tel: +44 (0)20 3463 7399

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