Coleman receives first "Prospect Street Award" from Yale for work with climate change
Both mitigation — the efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions — and adaptation to existing climate changes will be on the table at the critical climate negotiations in Paris this fall. But until recently, adaptation was considered throwing in the towel, says Heather Coleman ’04 M.E.M., the Climate Change Policy Manager at Oxfam America. In that role, Coleman works on climate policy to help protect vulnerable communities from the worst effects of climate change.
Oxfam, Coleman says, really helped to put adaptation on the map by calculating the cost of adaptation in developing countries. “You can’t talk about mitigation without addressing adaptation,” she said in a recent interview. “Nor should you politically. It creates more urgency to talk about adaptation. Looking at impacts today brings more urgency to the issue, to make sure that impacts don’t create more disparity in the future.”
Coleman will be the recipient of the inaugural Prospect Street Award at the F&ES Reunion Weekend, October 9-11. The award recognizes a recent F&ES graduate who has made significant contributions to the environmental field and who exemplifies the spirit of the School through demonstrated leadership, innovation, and creativity.