Clara McDonnell is a PhD candidate in the Governance and Inclusive Development (GID) programme group of the AISSR. She holds an MSc in International Development Studies from the University of Amsterdam and a BA in Spanish and Latin American Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her previous research has examined how institutional investor initiatives shape the responses of large investors to climate change.

She will investigate the role of big investors including pension funds in leaving fossil fuels underground (LFFU). This PhD is part of a larger project which will address the role of big investors in LFFU, the North-South implications of LFFU, and the necessary measures to be adopted to equitably allocate and accelerate the responsibilities of shareholders and stakeholders in energy transformation. Applying a comparative and transdisciplinary case study approach, the project team will combine institutional analysis with an innovative theoretical model for inclusive development.

This project is part of the Advanced Grant to Joyeeta Gupta for the project CLIFF (Climate Change and Fossil Fuel) which has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (contract number 101020082).