The Global Climate Hub is operating as an SDSN Thematic Network which includes the expertise and talent of individuals and members of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network
The Hosting Institutions of the SDSN Global Climate Hub (SDSN-GCH) are the Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB) and the “Athena” Research and Innovation Center in Information, Communication and Knowledge Technologies (ATHENA RC), both of which are part of the Alliance of Excellence for Research and Innovation on Αephoria (AE4RIA), an initiative for collaboration between research institutions, innovation accelerators, and science-technology-policy interface networks focused on sustainable development. The Academy of Athens and the Technical University of Denmark, are two of the most important co-founding institutions of the GCH.
The chair of the SDSN-GCH is Prof. Phoebe Koundouri, who also is the founder and director of AE4RIA.
The SDSN-GCH consists of nine thematic units that cover in an interlinked fashion a broad spectrum of climate sustainability concerns & needs:
The works of the units of the GCH is supported by 200 researchers.
The SDSN-GCH collates expertise, knowledge, data, and tools to provide science-based and human-centric pathways towards net zero transformation towards 2050. For successfully treading this way, sophisticated support from advanced digital technologies, complex science modelling and a holistic multi-module approach are needed, to provide suitable science-based recommendations. The SDSN GCH makes extensive use of data, knowledge and technologies provided by experts, and couples this with country-specific action plans aiming at their adoption and reinforcement by society. It adopts a holistic multi-module approach, allowing for the evaluation of variable complexities and scales, providing relevant technical, financial, and policy solutions.
Professor Dr. Phoebe Koundouri is a world-renowned pioneer in innovative, human-centric, interdisciplinary systems for the sustainable interaction between nature, society, and the economy, included in the Stanford University list of Top 2% world scientists. She is a Professor at the School of Economics, and Director of ReSEES Laboratory, at Athens University of Economics and Business. She is also a Research Professor at the Technical University of Denmark, Department of Technology, Management and Economics. She is the Director of the Sustainable Development Unit (SDU) at the ATHENA Information Technology Research Center.
Professor Koundouri is an academician, elected member of Academia Europaea; World Academy of Art and Science (Trustee); European Academy of Sciences and Arts; Academy of Engineering and Technology of the Developing World; InterAcademy Partnership (IAP); and fellow of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists; European Forest Institute; and member of the Nominating Committee for the Nobel Prize in Economics Sciences.
She holds an MPhil and a PhD in Economics from the University of Cambridge. She has held academic positions at the University of Cambridge, University College London, the University of Reading, and the London School of Economics. She has published 19 books, and more than 600 peer reviewed scientific papers, including publications in Nature, the Lancet, and top-ranked economics, econometrics, and sustainability science journals. She co-edited several prestigious academic journals, including Nature: Climate Action and Environmental and Resources Economics. She organized numerous international scientific conferences, supervised more than 30 PhD students, and gave keynote speeches and public lectures across the world.
In 2019, she was elected President of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (EAERE) the lager scientific association in the field, with more than 1500 member institutions, from more than 75 countries and she is now chairing the World Council of Environmental and Natural Resource Economists Associations (WCERE) including the USA, Latin American, European, African and Asian ERE Associations. In 2022 she received the prestigious European Research Council Synergy Grant, and in 2023, she was awarded the Academy of Athens Award for Scientific Excellence.
She founded and directs the Alliance of Excellence for Research and Innovation on Aeiphoria (AE4RIA), linking the research and innovation work of research centers, innovations accelerators and numerous science-policy networks and academies, with more than 200 researchers and 100 large, interdisciplinary, competitively funded projects (with applications in more than 120 countries). She is chair of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) Global Climate Hub and co-chair of SDSN Europe, with 2000 universities involved.
She is Academia Europaea Representative to S20 Task Force 2 on Bioeconomy of the G20 Heads of States, Commissioner for the Lancet Commission on COVID19 Recovery, member of the Fraternal Economy of Integral and Sustainable Development of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, member of the European Investment Bank Climate Leaders Network and the Leading Women for the Ocean (LWO); She is member of the Regional Action on Climate Change International Advisory Committee (RACC-IAC); EU Climate Pact Ambassador; Earth-Humanity Coalition (EHC); Special Scientific Committee on Climate Change of the Ministry of Environment and Energy; She acts as an advisor to the UN, World Bank, European Commission, EIB, EBRD, OECD, WHO, and many others, including public and private international and national companies.
