Meagan Jooste Upadhyaya
Meagan is an Economist with over 15 years of experience in the environmental and development sectors leading research and analyses to inform evidence-based economic and sustainability policies and strategies. She is a Senior Researcher in the ESRG team. She has worked in both the public and private sectors, most recently as Head: Economic Research at the City of Cape Town. Some of the key projects she worked on during her time at the municipality included an economic impact assessment of the water crisis in Cape Town to inform interventions to avert ‘Day Zero’; a feasibility assessment to support the City of Cape Town’s establishment of a Green Bond; as well as a range of economic impact modelling and cost-benefit analyses of municipal infrastructure projects. She is experienced in managing diverse teams across multiple projects and in stakeholder engagements with actors in both the economic and environmental ecosystems. She was a Humboldt International Climate Protection Fellow between 2011 and 2012, at the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin, Germany. At the ESRG she conducts climate policy analysis and research with an emphasis at the climate-economy interface. Her current research interests include green industrialization, critical minerals, and enhancing climate finance availability and access for African countries.
Qualifications:
Master of Social Sciences: Economics (UCT);
Bachelor of Social Sciences (Honours): Economics (UCT);
Bachelor of Social Science: Economics and Environmental and Geographical Sciences, University of Cape Town (UCT)
Selected publications:
City of Cape Town, 2019/2020 and 2017/2018. ‘Invest Cape Town’. Publication in partnership with Wesgro.
City of Cape Town, 2016-2018. ‘Economic Performance Indicators for Cape Town’. Quarterly local government publication.
Graham, N; Jooste, M and Foster, K. 2015. ‘A Human Settlement Demand Study in the Western Cape’. Housing segment market report completed for the Western Cape Government: Department of Human Settlements.
Sykes, G and Jooste, M. 2014. ‘Leveraging public programmes with socio-economic and development objectives to support conservation and restoration of ecosystems: Lessons learned from South Africa’. Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
Jooste, M; Tyler, E; Coetzee, K; Boyd, A and Boulle, M. 2014. ‘Internalising mitigation activities into the development priorities and approaches of developing countries. Proceedings of the Forum on Development and Mitigation’. Energy Research Centre, University of Cape Town.
Vorster, S; Winkler, H and Jooste, M. 2011. ‘Mitigating climate change through carbon pricing: An emerging policy debate in South Africa’. Climate and Development, 3:3, 242-258.
Winkler, H, Jooste, M & Marquard, A. 2010. ‘Structuring approaches to pricing carbon in energy- and trade-intensive sectors in South Africa’. Climate Policy, 9: 527–542.