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Catherine Foley

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Adjunct Fellow

Expertise: Climate change law and policy, water security, environmental law, international development, security, peacebuilding, geopolitics

Catherine Foley is currently a Climate Change and Water Resources Project Manager for CSRA. She supports the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Water Security Division through the development of programs and strategic plans to become more resilient to a changing climate. She primarily manages projects for EPA’s Climate Ready Water Utilities (CRWU) initiative, assisting water utilities nation-wide in developing adaptation plans and understanding the risks their utilities face from various environmental stressors. She also supports EPA’s Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water in its efforts to plan strategically for the future.

Prior to joining CSRA, Catherine was a Climate Change Policy Specialist with Mott MacDonald. During that time, she specialized in producing climate change risk assessments for a number of clients across the public and private sectors, as well as strategic planning for climate change adaptation. She was a member of the Policy, Sustainability and Climate Change team, and is currently based in Edinburgh, UK.

A Boston area native, Catherine received her B.A. (Cum Laude) from the College of the Holy Cross in 2010 in French and Peace and Conflict Studies, focusing on the correlation between climate change and security. She studied abroad for a year in Strasbourg, France where she interned at the International Institute of Human Rights.

In 2011, she completed her Masters in Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. Her primary areas of research included the links between climate change, development and conflict, leading her to write her dissertation on the geopolitical consequences of climate change in Bangladesh. The title of her dissertation was, “Heating Up: Climate Change, Migration and Violent Conflict in Bangladesh; An Analysis of the Interplay Between Human Insecurity and Climate Change”.

In 2013, Catherine completed an LLM in Global Environment and Climate Change Law at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

Her research focused primarily on subnational climate change regulation in the United States, Canada and the BRICS countries, and ways in which this can help support national and international action on climate change. The title of her LLM dissertation was, ““A Bottom-Up Approach?: Assessing the Legal Implications of Subnational Climate Change Regulation”.

Previous to joining Mott MacDonald, Catherine was a Policy Analyst for Climate Change, Energy and Security at the American Security project in 2012, focusing primarily on climate security. She worked on the new edition of the Climate Security Index with Andrew Holland.

She also worked for the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation from 2010-2011. She co-authored a paper for Scotland’s 2020 Climate Group called “2020 Climate Group: Leading by Example Initiative on Transport”. This paper analyzed best practice and challenges in sustainable transport among the members of the 2020 Group.

Featured Publications:

Foley and A. Holland, Climate Security Report, American Security Project (2012)

Foley, Military Basing and Climate Change, American Security Project (2012)

Dunham, C. Foley and P.C. Lumb, “Climate Resilient Hydropower Infrastructure,” Hydro 2014-International Journal on Hydropower and Dams (2014)


Recent Posts

Climate Change: The Missing Link in Tackling the Mali Crisis

Posted on: November 20th, 2012

Drought, Corn Production and Biofuels: Where does the Renewable Fuel Standard Stand?

Posted on: August 17th, 2012

New Scientific Facts About Climate Change From NASA–The Organization That Put a Rover on Mars

Posted on: August 7th, 2012

Capitol Hill Talks Climate Change but Action Still Not Likely

Posted on: August 1st, 2012

Tidal Energy Comes to the US

Posted on: July 26th, 2012