Climate Governance Policy Analyst Volunteer

The ACE Observatory seeks a collaborative, strategic, team-oriented Policy Analyst support to help build out and implement the observatory’s climate governance work. Reporting to the Director and working alongside other program officers, volunteers and interns, the Policy Analyst will expand our emerging climate governance portofolio, supporting broad coalitions of actors outside and inside government to demonstrate how democratic government centered on climate justice justice can deliver solutions for communities, particularly those long excluded from power, and seed new climate governance. 

In particular, we seek a dynamic, credible researcher who brings a strong intersectional analysis to the work with a particular emphasis on gender, intergenerational, racial justice. Ideally the canditate will have a proven track record of working closely with communities that have been historically marginalized from the systems that affect their lives keeping the lived experiences of people and communities at the center of ACE approach. 

An ideal candidate is curious about the intersections of climate change, human rights and most importantly that representative and reflective constituencies and communities should work together to implement climate public policy agendas. They would also be responsible for working with governments and civil society on the development of regional policy analysis of Action for Climate Empowerment, climate governance and climate justice. Ideal candidates possess superb analytical skills and the ability to strategize and prioritize and assess opportunities, challenges and institutions with which to engage. They are action-oriented and entrepreneurial self-starters who are open to new ideas and can work well independently and in teams. 

BACKGROUND 

The ACE Observatory is an open and participatory multi-level based infrastructure for policymakers, civil society, and practitioners alike developed in partnership with the UNFCCC. The aim is to dramatically increase people-centered climate action and climate justice assessment, power collective intelligence, inspire strategic leaps, and attract investment from funders. It will provide much needed tools to track and assess progress on climate governance and people-centered climate action. In order to identify the gaps that need to be addressed and prioritized, and to strengthen this vision across the world, we need increased knowledge sharing and a comprehensive way to track progress on People-Centered Climate Action. The codesigned ACE Observatory Assessment Framework provides a simple way to understand the capacities needed to achieve participatory and just climate strategies. This platform will aggregate national action on cocreated benchmarks through high-quality data. 

The Policy Analysits will lead our emerging regional climate governance scan portofolio to be presented under UNFCCC to provide support and guidance to national actors in demonstrating how people-centered climate action can deliver for communities, particularly those long excluded from power and seed new democracy. 

RESPONSIBILITIES 

Reporting to the ACE Observatory Director and working with a multidisciplinary stakeholders of climate governance, the Poilcy Analysts will: 

• Collaborate across the ACE Observatory network and relevant actors to analyze challenges and opportunities, seek rigorous evidence about ACE effectiveness, identify levers of change, and author regional/country Scans. 

• Continually scan the fields related to climate governance in the chosen region/country (and globally to learn lessons for the local context), follow key developments and debates, keep abreast of the academic and popular literature, share key findings and lessons among colleagues and the field. 

QUALIFICATIONS 

• Student or professional in the areas of environmental science, climate science, public policy, social studies or other relevant fields. 

• A strong sense of how to apply racial and gender justice analyses to strategy is desirable; an understanding of comparative perspectives on political systems is preferred. • Substantive knowledge in the formal and informal structures, practices, and processes of government ranging from civic participation and community organizing to formal democracy reforms and approaches to co-governance.

• Familiarity and experience working with climate justice concepts and frameworks such as racial equity, gender analyses, disability justice, economic justice, intersectionality, and implicit and structural bias. 

• Exceptional communications skills: active listening, cogent and polished writing, constructive yet humble speaking, and comfort with public speaking and presentation. • Demonstrated ability to be a productive member of a community of people at work, respecting differences while working toward shared goals, comfort with periods of ambiguity, constructive participation in ongoing organizational development. 

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS 

• Demonstrated understanding of comparative perspectives on political systems • Written and oral fluency in Spanish and English 

• Experience working on climate justice/climate governance