Researcher Spotlight: Emma O’Donnell

After earning my A.B. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Princeton, I worked at Aon, a reinsurance brokerage firm, where I worked on public-private partnerships for climate risk, collaborating with stakeholders across sectors to develop innovative climate solutions. Recognizing the need to bring biodiversity risk into the financial conversation, I pursued an MSc in Sustainability, Enterprise and the Environment at Oxford’s Smith School. My research focused on quantifying nature-related financial risks, and I contributed to projects developing scenarios for biodiversity risk analysis  and exploring the use of AI to integrate biodiversity data into financial decision-making.

Now, as a DPhil candidate at Oxford with the Nature-based Solutions Initiative, I’m developing methodologies to quantify nature-related financial risks. I also work with the Global Finance and Economy Group at the Environmental Change Institute and the Grantham Institute at the London School of Economics on related projects with partners including the European Central Bank and the European Space Agency. Next, I’ll be starting an internship at the Bank of England, where I’ll investigate the impact of biodiversity on house prices and mortgage rates.

On the Sprint, “How can the UK implement the Global Biodiversity Framework’s finance goals?” I am supporting efforts to quantify the current impact of the UK financial system, both domestically and globally. I am also contributing to the scenario analysis component of the project by adapting the impact methodology to estimate the impact of the UK financial system under different policy scenarios that enable the combination of mechanisms for greening finance and financing green. As a team, we are exploring how different policy interventions change the impact of financial institutions to understand how the UK financial system can support the achievement of the targets of the Global Biodiversity Framework.

It is challenging but rewarding to bring such an interdisciplinary team together. We all have our strengths and different ways of thinking about the same issue, which allows us to problem solve in a more holistic and creative way. I certainly hope to continue to work in Sprint-type environments throughout my career as I enjoy the fast-paced and impact-oriented research environment that they facilitate.

My biggest takeaway is the importance of clear communication, especially when working with inter- and trans-disciplinary teams. The largest challenges with communication often stem from words that we use in everyday language that mean different things to different stakeholders, such “risk”. I have found it incredibly valuable to understand where and why communication might break down and how we can work together to find a common understanding.

The one-year format for the Sprint format generates a sense of urgency for the team, which has allowed us to prioritize our research around impact and our common goal. The biggest challenge is pairing down our research ambitions to ensure they are feasible within the timeframe. There is, of course, excitement about the project and subject, which can lead to scope creep, but it has been really useful to have a clear deadline allowing us to focus on key outputs. This kind of prioritization will be invaluable as I continue my PhD research where many of these skills are incredibly important in appropriately constructing a thesis.