RISE Internship: Global Clean Air Policy Intern at Environmental Defense Fund
Position Title: Global Clean Air Policy Intern
Hours/Week: 28 hours/week, Monday-Thursday
Internship Date Range: Summer 2025 (10 weeks)
Location: Remote. Intern supervisor is in Austin, and many team members are in Houston, DC, and Mexico City.
About the Resilience Internships and Student Experiences (RISE) Program
The RISE Program is hosted by the Arizona Institute for Resilience (AIR) and provides undergraduate and graduate students with paid internships related to resilient environments and societies. RISE internships give students experience in workplace settings with an opportunity to grow their interpersonal skills and prepare them for careers after graduation.
About the Environmental Defense Fund:
EDF’s Global Clean Air program is driving targeted clean air action by shining a light on air quality at a scale and scope never seen before. We combine highly resolved data insights on air quality, pollution sources, and their impacts with inclusive processes for solution development. This generates durable actions that bridge the gap between insights and implementation, unlocking resources and establishing metrics essential for sustained progress in reducing air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
Internship summary:
As countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) pursue ambitious clean air and climate goals with the potential to improve health and quality of life across the region, ensuring that national and local governments have the air quality monitoring and data analytics capacity they need to effectively design and evaluate these policies is critical. To this end, EDF is developing programming and resources to promote enhanced capacity in:
- Air quality monitoring & data analytics: Strengthen capacities to assess air quality and its links to sources and impacts using data, including the design of effective, innovative and sustainable air quality monitoring networks and the application of groundbreaking data analytics.
- Climate and clean air policy design: Enhance abilities to build evidence-based solutions to air pollution problems aiming to achieve health and climate goals.
- Strengthen and expand air quality and climate policy programs: Support participants in the preparation of air quality and climate policy proposals, in support of national or subnational priorities as well as for submission to major regional funding organizations for additional resources.
In the US, as federal progress on air quality and climate resilience comes to a halt, we are redoubling efforts to support local and regional governments in air quality and resilience planning, including direct support to local governments in Houston, Washington DC, and Dallas Fort Worth.
The intern will support both LAC and US cities air quality management efforts, and will report to the Senior Policy Manager, Climate and Health.
Key Responsibilities
Tasks will include but are not limited to:
- Work with partnership on air quality with the UN Environment Program in Latin America, including development of a virtual workshop series and capacity-building program.
- Support air quality management efforts, including support for city-level projects in Washington DC, Houston and other cities.
- Support work on applications of the Climate Vulnerability Index for transportation and climate resilience planning, including identification of opportunities for presentations and partnerships.
- Contribute to policy research and analysis on efforts that national governments and regional bodies in LAC can take to monitor and improve air quality, key barriers and strategies to overcome these barriers.
- Contribute to policy research and analysis on existing policies and powers relevant to air quality management and environmental health for US cities of interest.
- Provide support to the Global Clean Air team with ongoing projects in partnership with local and regional government bodies.
- Participate in advancing EDF Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) goals in which people from all backgrounds and experiences feel connected, included, and empowered to address the environmental and organizational challenges in alignment with EDF values.
Qualifications
- Enrolled in a degree program and demonstrated interest in air quality, climate and health, environmental justice, urban planning and/or public policy.
- Coursework in environmental policy, urban or transportation planning, public policy/ public administration, public health, natural resource management, environmental engineering or similar topics recommended.
- Highly proficient in conducting and synthesizing research from multiple disciplines with a policy lens.
- Experience and/or interest in working with local, regional, or state government, environmental justice and/or climate adaptation/resilience preferred.
- Basic proficiency in data analysis, policy research, and public finance.
- Excellent written and oral communication skills.
- Must be well organized, motivated, and detail-oriented.
- Ability to multi-task, prioritize and meet deadlines.
- Ability to work in a team setting and independently when projects are due.
- Demonstrate self-awareness, cultural competency and inclusivity, and ability to work with colleagues and stakeholders across diverse cultures and backgrounds.
- Demonstrate initiative and problem solving skills.
- Bilingual in English/Spanish preferred.
Compensation:
The intern will be hired and paid by the University of Arizona. The pay rate is $18/hour.
How to Apply:
Applicants must be active U of A students enrolled in at least 6 credits. The intern will be hired as a U of A student employee. Please note:
- During the semester, student employees are limited to 25 hours/week (20 hours/week for international students) across ALL U of A positions.
- During the summer, student employees are limited to 35 hours/week across ALL U of A positions.
International students should consult with International Student Services (ISS) if work authorization is needed before securing an internship. ISS advising information can be found here.
Interested applicants should attach their cover letter and resume to the EDF application here.
Applications must be submitted no later than March 2nd, 2025.