Trishna Nagrani leads Asian expansion for Climeworks, a global carbon removal company. That focus on capturing and storing carbon dioxide occasionally makes her feel isolated from other efforts to address climate change, she says.
Eager to step outside her carbon-removal bubble, Nagrani applied to the Emerging Climate Leaders Fellowship program at the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs’ International Leadership Center (ILC). The program offers mid-career climate and clean energy practitioners from the Global South (generally comprising developing countries in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia, and Oceania) the chance to broaden their technical skills, expand their professional networks, and exchange views with Yale experts about clean energy and climate change.
“The fellowship offers a rare opportunity to engage deeply with other dimensions of the climate challenge — from the energy transition to the intersection of climate policy, science, and development,” said Nagrani, who is from Panama. “I was drawn to the breadth of the fellowship program and the chance to learn from peers and experts tackling climate change from entirely different vantage points.”
Nagrani is now a member of the 2026 cohort of Yale Climate Fellows. The five-month program kicked off in February when the 15 fellows gathered at Yale for a week of dialogue, networking, and professional development. While on campus, they participated in public events on a range of climate-related topics and shared their experiences and expertise with Yale faculty and students.
Through June, the fellows will convene for a series of interactive remote sessions with top international experts on the full range of policy issues associated with climate change and the clean energy transition. The fellowship concludes with a weeklong gathering in Paris, during which the fellows will meet with analysts from International Energy Agency, an intergovernmental organization that provides data, analysis, and policy recommendations on global energy markets.
In a conversation with Yale News, Nagrani and three of her peers from the fellowship recently shared their reflections on their week on campus. The other fellows in the following exchange are Lolade Awogbade, who oversees sustainability at the Development Bank of Nigeria; Thais Ferraz, program director at the Institute for Climate and Society, a philanthropic organization based in Brazil dedicated to tackling climate change; and Anish Malpani, who leads Without, a social enterprise based in Pune, India, that transforms plastic waste into high-quality products.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
What is something you learned from the other fellows during your time together on campus?
Lolade Awogbade: I would mention two things. First, regardless of what the global optics on climate change might look like, there are still a good number of us that are working towards creating a better earth and ensuring that our future generations are able to inhabit the earth.
The second thing is the power of community. We were at Yale for just one week, but in that time, we managed to form bonds, and everyone seemed genuinely invested in ensuring these bonds last for a long time.
Thais Ferraz: I learned that despite the diversity of our backgrounds, nations in the Global South face striking similarities in our systemic hurdles. A key insight was regarding the finance sector: We discussed how the inflated perception of risk creates a significant barrier to investment across our regions.
Anish Malpani: That despite wildly different backgrounds — bankers, activists, academics, entrepreneurs — we were all united by something harder to quantify: humility and a shared sense of humor. I also learned things I hadn’t thought enough about, such as the politics of geo-engineering in the Global South and the real complexity of just transitions. You leave thinking you knew a lot. You realize you knew a little.
What are some common challenges and opportunities that you and the other fellows are facing in your work?
Trishna Nagrani: Although we come from different regions and disciplines, a shared challenge is that climate change is never just an environmental issue. It is intertwined with economic development, national security, and geopolitics. That complexity can slow progress, but it also presents an opportunity. I believe climate solutions will only scale if they address these parallel priorities. The opportunity lies in designing approaches that advance climate goals while also strengthening development outcomes, enabling a just transition, and expanding economic opportunity.
Awogbade: Access to funding for both adaptation and mitigation projects continues to be a challenge. Emerging economies place more emphasis on seemingly more urgent areas, e.g. poverty or health, and fail to understand that climate is integral to all human and life systems and the continuation of our species. However, there continue to be huge opportunities for innovation in climate finance, especially innovations created from our lived realities.
Malpani: The biggest blind spot in mainstream climate discourse is this: Climate change is not just an environmental issue, it is a poverty issue. The people who will be hit hardest are the people who contributed the least to the problem. That perspective was refreshingly central to every conversation, not an afterthought.
The opportunity? Climate tech, done right, can create enormous numbers of dignified jobs at exactly the moment that artificial intelligence is automating them away.
Ferraz: There is a strong consensus that nature-based solutions — those that rely on natural ecosystems and ecological processes to reduce greenhouse gases or help communities adapt to climate impacts — represent a major opportunity for the Global South, particularly if we improve how we share experiences regarding data and monitoring. In terms of challenges, we often face a conflict where urgent social needs de-prioritize climate agendas. The challenge — and the goal — is to design integrated solutions that deliver simultaneous social and climate impact.
What was the highlight of the week?
Ferraz: The highlight was the depth of human connection — both within our cohort and with the Yale community. The most meaningful exchanges often happened beyond the classroom, during open dialogues, dinners, and shared moments of reflection.
Nagrani: Without question, it was the people. Spending an uninterrupted week together created an unusual level of depth and trust. By the end of the week, it didn’t feel like I had met 14 professional contacts — it felt like I had gained 14 friends. It’s rare to find a group that is passionate about climate, intellectually rigorous, and genuinely kind. Being part of a community committed to tackling a complex global challenge, while also supporting one another personally, was incredibly meaningful.
What did the experience at Yale mean for you? How are you feeling about the program moving forward?
Nagrani: The experience felt both rigorous and generous. The fellowship team was deeply intentional in structuring the week. They created space for each of us to share our expertise while also exposing us to leading scholars and practitioners across disciplines. It truly felt like receiving the best of Yale in a condensed format.
Personally, I left feeling energized. I’m already applying insights from the professional development sessions to my day-to-day work, and I’m thinking more expansively about how carbon removal can be better deployed in the Global South. I’m excited to see how this community continues to challenge and support one another over the course of the program.
Malpani: I’ll be honest, I walked in with two quiet doubts: that fellowships can be beautiful-sounding time sinks, and that the “Ivy network” can sometimes be more brand than substance. Both doubts were wrong.
The week was intense, rigorous, and real. We exchanged, we disagreed, we laughed, and we learned about each other’s work and about our own. The Yale faculty met us with genuine warmth, not ceremony. I left tired but full, empowered by the knowledge that there are excellent people — people who’ve built extraordinary things — who genuinely care about the next generation getting this right.
Awogbade: This was a life changing experience for me in so many ways, both mentally and professionally. I feel excited and optimistic about the next half of the program.
