Hadia Sheerazi

Hadia Sheerazi is a Manager in RMI’s (founded as the Rocky Mountain Institute) Climate-Aligned Industries (CAI) Program, co-leading community engagement and equity-centered work across the highest emitting industrial sectors. Her portfolio includes Clean Hydrogen, Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR), Direct Air Capture (DAC) Hubs, Shipping, Steel, Aluminum, and Waste-Methane sectors. She advises project developers on how to operationalize the “Justice40 Initiative” framework via capacity-building workshops and webinars on best practices for equitable, inclusive and meaningful two-way engagement to de-risk projects, designing and implementing well-rounded and responsive community benefit plans (CBPs), and remediating the impacts of historic underinvestment, environmental injustice, and decades of legacy pollution in low-income, BIPOC frontline communities.

Hadia has over a decade of cross-sectoral experience in the public, private, nonprofit, community-based organizations (CBOs), intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), and academic sectors. Prior to joining RMI, Hadia served as the program manager of the Carbon Management Research Initiative (CaMRI) at the Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia University Climate School. She managed the CaMRI team's engagements with policymakers from key Congressional offices and Committees, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Global Change, U.S. Department of State, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), and the inaugural White House National Climate Task Force, and helped convene several high-level decarbonization and net-zero strategy briefings for ministers, diplomats, and policymakers from Europe, Asia, Latin America and Oceania. Hadia also led Columbia University’s successful submission for a $10 million grant from NYSERDA for the Carbontech Development Initiative to establish a world-class hub of carbon-to-value research, technology transfer and commercialization in New York State.

Most recently, she presented testimony on equity and environmental justice considerations in the development of climate regulations before the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and New York State’s Climate Action Council (CAC). Hadia is currently a contributing member of the NPCC’s Climate and Science Projections working group that is tasked with reviewing and synthesizing recent climate research and advising the Mayor’s Office on New York City’s multi-hazard adaptation strategy, including over $20 billion of investments and major coastal resiliency projects in all five boroughs. She has contributed to several scholarly reports, commentaries, special reports, and articles published by RMI (founded as the Rocky Mountain Institute), the Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia University, State of the Planet - Columbia Climate School, and IRENA (International Renewable Energy Agency).

Hadia has been internationally recognized for her research and contributions to climate action, gender equity in education and economic opportunities, sustainability, community-led adaptation and resilience. sustainability, adaptation and resilience in disaster-prone communities, and social justice. In 2022, she was recognized as one of “50 Rising Stars in ESG'' by Women of the Future, Tesco, Burberry, PwC, Aviva and the Financial Times, and named to Yahoo!Finance’s “HERoes Top 100: Future Leader Role Models'' globalist. Hadia is the first global winner of the United Nations Development Programme-administered King Hamad Youth Empowerment Award to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for contributions to UN SDGs 1, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 13, 16, and 17. She is the recipient of the Sandra Forte Memorial Award for Emerging Professionals from Advancing Women in Transportation (WTS) for her project to improve the safety and sustainability of the New York City subway, the Morton Deutsch Award for Social Justice for her research on inequalities faced by women and girls in sports, and was a finalist on the Forbes 30 under 30 list. Hadia was named a“Global Champion for Women’s Economic Empowerment” by UN Women’s EmpowerWomen initiative, and invited to the inaugural United State of Women (USOW) Summit by the White House Council on Women and Girls as a“Nominated Changemaker."

She has served as an Ambassador for the ONE Campaign, Girl Rising, Half the Sky, and A World at School. Hadia was selected as a two-term Youth Delegate to the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and World Bank youth summits. Hadia has been invited to serve as a panelist and keynote speaker at several conferences and high-level IGO events on climate action, DRR and youth leadership, and sustainable development, including speaking at the 2023 World Hydrogen Congress North America, the 2023 Global Youth Climate Summit, and being invited by the Norwegian UNEA Presidency to speak as a representative of the United Nations Major Group for Children and Youth (UNMGCY) at the 2020 Act #forNature Forum, the largest global digital consultation on the environment and the post-pandemic recovery. In 2015 she was invited to deliver the Youth Keynote Address in the United Nations General Assembly Hall to commemorate the 70th anniversary of civil society at the United Nations.

Hadia was a post-graduate Fellow to Nobel Laureate, Leymah Gbowee at Columbia University’s Women, Peace and Security Program, and served as a former Net Impact Climate Fellow, United Nations SDSN Local Pathways Fellow, Youth Expert in the Commonwealth Youth Climate Change Network (CYCCN), Climate Reality Leader, and Honorary Advisory to the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development at the United Nations. She has served on the Board of the Young Women’s Council of the High Water Women Foundation (HWWF), was a mentor in Girls Write Now, Inc., an Amplifier for Girl Be Heard, member of the Grants Advisory Committee of The New York Women’s Foundation (NYWF), and on the Steering Committee of the Women's Foreign Policy Group (WFPG) Young Professionals Network. She is currently a Steering Committee member of the Young Professionals Association at the Association for a Better New York (ABNY).

Hadia holds a dual master of science degree in Sustainability Management and Conflict Resolution from Columbia University, and graduated as Class Speaker and Student Marshall with a bachelor of arts degree in Government and Politics from St. John’s University.

Sub-specialties
Adaptation, Carbon Management, Circular Carbon Economy, Climate Change, Climate Action, Climate Advocacy, Climate Justice, Climate Resilience, Climate Regulation, Conflict Resolution, DEIA, Diplomacy, Disability Rights, Disaster Recovery, Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), ESG, Energy Policy, Energy Poverty, Energy Security, Environment, Environmental Justice, Equity, FERC, Flooding, Heatwaves, Geopolitics, Loss and Damage, NPCC, Renewable Hydrogen, Resilience, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Sustainable Cities, Women and Sports, Women in Energy (WIE), Women in Cities, Women in Diplomacy, Women in Leadership, Women, Peace and Security (WPS), Youth and Climate, Youth Leadership.