Meet Caroline Sawe, Research Associate

I work with the air quality, climate and environmental change group, and my role – as part of a team – is to support national governments to develop their strategies around air pollution and climate change.

We work with countries all over the world: we have projects in Latin America, Asia, Africa, but my role precisely is actually looking at African countries, and mainly West African francophone countries. We work with government ministries, and support them to quantify their air pollutant emission sources and understand the levels of pollution in their country. We then look at strategies they can take which would help reduce emissions, but also deaths that are related to air pollution.

Of course, every week is different. Some weeks, I’m sitting at my computer working with countries to prepare their datasets. I work a lot with a tool developed by SEI: the Low Emissions Analysis Platform, or LEAP. I run emissions models through LEAP and look at the results. Based on those results, I write air pollution mitigation strategies.

Some weeks, I’m delivering LEAP training, either online or in person. In August, for example, a colleague and I were in Uganda. Other weeks, I’m writing reports on the training or on the datasets and models I’ve run. I deliver training for francophone governments as a key part of my role, but I also do training in English.

My original training was in sustainable development because I wanted to understand it more broadly. Right after completing my master’s, I started working for the French Wind Energy Association. While doing that work, I realized that climate change mitigation was really something that I wanted to focus on. I then moved back to Kenya to continue my work.

When I was working with local authorities in Kenya and Uganda, I noticed that when you talk about climate change, people often see it as a huge thing that they are not capable of handling, it’s too big. But when you talk about air pollution, they can see the health impacts directly. You can tell someone: this many people are dying in your country because of air pollution, and here’s where you can improve.

People seemed more confident talking about air pollution than climate change, and that’s when I got really interested in the connection between the two. The great thing is, you can address both air quality and climate change at the same time: they’re two sides of the same coin!

When I was in East Africa, I saw that SEI was doing important work on air pollution, especially from their Nairobi office. At that time, I decided to take a step back and reflect on my career and what I really wanted to do. I told myself that if I could find people who would help me combine my interests and knowledge on climate change and air quality, or air pollution, I would be really happy. I asked myself: what do I know? what do I need to know? And then I found York’s research.

What drew me to SEI York in particular was the focus on the nexus between climate change and air quality! SEI York is one of the few institutions working on these two issues together, and when I saw that, I thought, “Yes, I have to work for them!”

In terms of switching off – I enjoy my work, and I’ve never really wanted to switch off from this job! But I do enjoy jogging along the river in York – it’s so refreshing. I also play hockey at a local club, and I’d recommend anyone new to York to join a sports club. I’ve played hockey since high school, and while I’m not the best player, it’s fun to play with people outside of work. It really completes my life here in York.

1. The diversity here is one of the most exciting aspects of working at SEI York. We have people from all continents, and it’s really enriching to learn about people from different cultures and backgrounds. For me, lunchtime is often the highlight of the day, where we share our experiences and learn from each other, whether from the UK or elsewhere. My colleagues have also made adjusting to life in York easier by offering recommendations and inviting me to social activities. Moving to a new city can be challenging, but they’ve really helped me settle in.
2. I would never have said this a year ago, but I come into the office every day here. Before I started at SEI York, I imagined I’d want to be at home and work remotely. But since starting here, I find myself enjoying the daily interactions with colleagues so much that I come in every day. The people here are genuinely nice, and that’s made a big difference.
3. Being part of the University of York, where SEI York is based, adds so much value to my career. I’ve always worked with local and national governments rather than in academia, but now I’m gaining the experience of working within a research institution. It’s really helping me grow into more of a researcher!