Renata Koch Alvarenga

Renata Koch Alvarenga, from Brazil, is a leading voice on gender and climate justice in the global youth movement, and has been involved for almost a decade in the gender and climate space as an expert and speaker in global conferences in 10+ countries. She founded the youth-led and Brazil-based organization EmpoderaClima at 22 years old, to raise awareness of the need for women’s empowerment in climate decision-making spaces, and advocate for girl’s education and climate action in the Global South – more specifically in Latin America and the Caribbean. Renata recently graduated with a Master's in Public Policy from Harvard University, where she researched climate finance and resilience to advise the World Food Programme on its Caribbean work. At Harvard, she worked with the Belfer Center for International Relations and the Center for International Development, and did fieldwork in Puerto Rico and Barbados.

Renata has professional experience in global climate policy and diplomacy, having worked at the British Mission in Brazil and the United Nations Youth Office. She currently works as a Disaster Risk Financing Specialist at the World Bank Headquarters in Washington D.C.

For the past nine years,  Renata has been working tirelessly to ensure young people can access high-level global spaces, having been active in the Youth Constituency of the UNFCCC, as the Gender Contact Point, as well as the UN Girls’ Education Initiative and UN Women as a youth leader. She has served on advisory boards for gender/climate issues of the New York Times, Chicago Council of Global Affairs, and the Sustainable Amazon Foundation in Brazil. In 2022, Renata was nominated for the class of Environmental Educators (EE) 30 Under 30.