Monica Araya

Born in Costa Rica, Monica Araya has worked on sustainability issues for over 20 years with a focus on Latin America. She is the Founder and Director of Nivela (www.nivela.org), a virtual thought leadership group devoted to new ideas and southern voices in clean economy and the politics of climate change. She also founded Costa Rica Limpia, the country´s first citizen observatory devoted to clean energy, transportation and quality of life issues (www.costaricalimpia.org)

She directed the “Sustainable Americas” at the Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy, worked at Ministry of Foreign Trade in Costa Rica and at Climate Change Capital in London. She was a negotiator for Costa Rica in the international climate negotiations and been an independent adviser to multiple organizations including the OECD, WRI, ODI, NREL, ECF, CDKN, INCAE Business School and the UN. Monica has written over 60 publications, and frequently comments in local and international media. Monica complemented her training in economics and development in Costa Rica (Bachelors and Masters in Economic Policy, National University) with environmental management and sustainability (Masters and Doctorate Degree, Yale University).