Ernst Bertone Oehninger Email & Phone Number

My primary motivation is to work on projects related to environmental quality and social justice, issues that I’m passionate about. Coming from a rural household in Brazil and pursuing a college degree in Agricultural Sciences, the connection between food production, food access and environmental quality became clear to me at an early age. After studying Agronomy at University of São Paulo, I moved to France to pursue a master’s degree in Economics of Sustainable Development. After this degree I had the opportunity to work as a consultant on climate change issues at two different UN agencies (IFAD and FAO). In this job I worked with UNFCCC guidelines to estimate the carbon reductions generated by several development projects in Rwanda and Eritrea, mostly involving agroforestry, small scale biogas digesters and improved stoves. In 2010 I joined RFF (French Rail Network) on the management of the public consultation process of a new high-speed train line, where I interacted with different stakeholders such as businesses favoring the project or NGOs opposing it. I then worked for three years at Deloitte's Climate Change and Sustainability team in France, where I audited environmental and social information of several French corporations. Most of my work involved accounting of GHG data, as well as non-GHG emissions, water consumption, waste generation and recycling, working-related accidents, male-female pay gap, etc.During my PhD I focused my research on the impacts of climate change on agricultural groundwater extraction and agricultural biodiversity, and the effect of environmental and trade policies on land use across borders. After grad school I worked at UC Davis as a Lecturer for several classes, including Natural Resource Economics, Environmental Policy, Intermediate Microeconomics, Environmental Economics, and Econometrics.In addition to my paid professional experiences, I have been working on a few projects related to climate resilience and food access at community level, such as a food sharing scheme with the implementation of public refrigerators, where any person can take or leave any food. Our first freedge (free fridge) was installed in Davis in October 2014, and today we host one of largest existing databases of resources promoting community food production and sharing (freedge.org). I strongly believe that community-centered initiatives are a big part of the equation in the fight against climate change and inequality, and therefore I dedicate a large amount of time to them.