Claudia Aravena

Dr. Claudia Aravena serves as Associate Professor in Economics at Edinburgh Business School, Heriot-Watt University, where she has been a faculty member since 2016. Her internationally recognized research bridges energy, environmental, and behavioral economics with policy applications across 20+ countries. She holds leadership positions in the Latin America Environmental and Resource Economics Association (LAERE) as President Elect and contributes to global initiatives including Environment for Development (EfD), Sustainable Energy Transition Initiative (SETI), and Emission Pricing for Development (EPfD).

Her academic credentials include:

• PhD in Energy, Environmental and Behavioural Economics (2011), Queen’s University Belfast
• Certificate in Sustainable Development (PhD Level, 2009), University College Dublin
• MSc in Environmental and Natural Resources Economics (2007), Universidad de Concepción
• Bachelor and Licentiate Degree in Economics (2001), Universidad de Concepción

Dr. Aravena's research program centers on interdisciplinary solutions to sustainability challenges, employing stated preference methods and social experiments to analyze energy transitions, ecosystem valuation, and environmental justice. Her work uniquely integrates behavioral insights with policy design, focusing on electric vehicle adoption, carbon pricing mechanisms, and equitable air pollution abatement strategies. Current projects address air quality inequalities in Colombia, biodiversity conservation in Peru/Ecuador, and energy efficiency in Scotland/Chile.

Analysis of her recent publications reveals a decisive shift toward intersectional environmental economics, particularly examining how socioeconomic disparities compound ecological challenges in developing economies. Her methodology combines rigorous experimental design with real-world policy implementation, evidenced by increasing collaboration with governmental bodies in Latin America and Southeast Asia. Key thematic clusters include sustainable transportation adoption through gamified interventions, gender-differentiated impacts of environmental policies, and biodiversity valuation frameworks for marine protected areas.

Her scientific contributions have been recognized through:

• ALEAR Best Postgraduate Paper Award (2007)
• EfD Impact Award - Certificate of Excellence (2023)
• Gibson Institute - QUB Special Research Scholarship (2010)
• HWU Research Culture Champion (2024)
• Academic Excellence Award (1996)

Dr. Aravena actively mentors PhD candidates while leading multi-country research consortia funded through international development agencies. Her current grants include UKRI-supported air quality studies in Colombian megacities, Newton Fund biodiversity valuation projects in the Andes, and Scottish Government energy transition initiatives. She collaborates with 15+ institutions across six continents, maintaining dual research affiliations at Universidad De Los Andes (Colombia) and Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina (Peru). Her teaching innovations in challenge-based learning have been implemented across Southeast Asia and the UK.

As co-leader of the Sustainable Energy Transition Initiative's policy working group and organizer of the 2025 Climate Finance Futures Symposium, Dr. Aravena drives transnational research networks focused on operationalizing the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Her laboratory infrastructure comprises distributed field teams in Latin America and coordinated survey platforms across three continents, enabling real-time analysis of environmental policy impacts.