S. Reyes de la Lanza (Sebastian) MSc

Sebastian is a PhD candidate in the Department of Geography, Planning, and Environment. His research contributes to the EU Horizon project "Achieving High-Integrity Voluntary Climate Action" (ACHIEVE), which aims to strengthen high-integrity voluntary climate efforts to achieve net-zero emissions by mid-century.

His primary focus is mapping transnational voluntary climate initiatives designed to mobilise non-state actors such as subnational governments, corporations, and financial institutions to scale up their climate ambitions. Sebastian's research extends to formulating principles for assessing these initiatives and their participants, grounded in a robust scientific understanding of integrity and effectiveness. These principles are intended to facilitate comprehensive evaluations of initiatives to discern potential and realised impacts, as well as associated risks and opportunities of voluntary climate action, and thus improve design elements and governance structures to enhance the integrity of initiatives.

Sebastian holds a Bachelor of Science in Environmental and Chemical Engineering from the Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro (Mexico) and a Master of Science in Environmental Governance from the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg (Germany).