Executive Director
Paola Ferreira is an environmental policy and strategy expert with 22 years of international experience in biodiversity conservation, climate change, and energy. As a Biologist and Civil Engineer with degrees from Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia, and an MSc from MIT, she has worked extensively in advising, leading, and implementing transformative environmental policy initiatives with positive outcomes and managing nonprofit organizations.
Paola joined Climate XChange as Executive Director in March 2022. She will be leading the organization into its next chapter, building upon the recent growth of our State Climate Policy Network (SCPN) and deepening our impact on state-level climate action. She brings a wealth of experience in climate advocacy and nonprofit management. As Executive Director of Tropical Audubon Society, she spearheaded a strategic plan, led conservation efforts to protect important wildlife and bird habitat in Biscayne Bay, the Everglades, and Miami-Dade County, and grew the organization’s grassroots advocacy efforts.
She has also held senior policy roles spanning legislative, executive, and judicial environmental advocacy. Her past work includes the co-development of a Florida Energy Regulatory Assessment and leading the Climate and Conservation team at World Wildlife Fund (WWF) – Emirates Wildlife Society in the United Arab Emirates.
Paola’s vision for CXC includes passing impactful climate bills in key states, strengthening the SCPN, and building out the new State Climate Policy Dashboard to include policy analysis, benchmarking, and trends that will empower state and local decision-makers around the country to advance climate policies.
States across the country are recognizing the importance of decarbonizing the transportation sector, the country’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. Light-duty vehicles account for over half of the emissions in this sector, making the transition from gas-powered cars to...
Climate XChange partnered with RMI on updating their State Climate Scorecards, a project that illustrates the effect current policies will have on climate-aligned emission reduction targets for 20 states. The Scorecards model expected greenhouse gas emission reductions — both economy-wide...
It is undeniable that climate change is affecting communities everywhere, and the crisis calls for swift collective action. Each Giving Tuesday we show support for organizations around the world working hard to make a difference in their communities. Many of...
