Maisa Rojas
Minister for the Environment
Assumed office
11 March 2022
PresidentGabriel Boric
Preceded byJavier Naranjo Solano
Personal details
Born (1972-08-10) 10 August 1972
Rengo, Chile
Political partyIndependent
Alma mater
OccupationPolitician
ProfessionPhysicist

Maisa Heloísa Juana Rojas Corradi (born 10 August 1972) is a Chilean politician, physicist and climatologist[1] who has been serving as Minister for the Environment since 2022.[2]

Early life and education

Rojas received her undergraduate degree in physics from the University of Chile and her Ph.D. in atmospheric physics from Lincoln College, Oxford.[3][4]

Career

Career in academia

Rojas then was a postdoctoral fellow at International Research Institute for Climate and Society at Columbia University in 2001.[5] She then returned to Universidad de Chile as a postdoctoral fellow, researcher, and then professor of geophysics.[6]

During that time, Rojas became an international leading climate change scientist. She was the lead author of the Paleoclimate chapter for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) fifth report (AR5), and was also a coordinating lead author for the IPCC report (AR6). She has served on various presidential councils and committees on climate change.[5]

Career in government

In 2022, Chilean President Gabriel Boric named Rojas to be Minister for the Environment in his cabinet.[7]

Rojas, along with Jennifer Morgan, led the working group at the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference that came up with an agreement on loss and damage finance.[8][9]

In a mid‑2023 interview, following one year as environment minister, Rojas said a major reason for entering politics was to prevent noted climate denier José Antonio Kast from becoming president. Rojas also does not believes that present government institutions are equipped to deal with the scale of the climate emergency we face. Nonetheless, Rojas does believe that a just transition to net‑zero is a necessity.[10]

References

  1. ↑ "'Nuestras estimaciones sobre los riesgos del cambio climático fueron muy conservadoras'". El País. 25 September 2021. Retrieved 11 March 2022.
  2. ↑ "Quién es Maisa Rojas, la nueva ministra de Medio Ambiente de Gabriel Boric". La Tercera. 21 January 2022. Retrieved 13 March 2022.
  3. ↑ "Maisa Rojas | Wilson Center". www.wilsoncenter.org. Retrieved 2022-03-20.
  4. ↑ "'We need politicians and experts': how Chile is putting the climate crisis first". the Guardian. 2022-02-05. Retrieved 2022-03-20.
  5. 1 2 "Women who Inspire: Maisa Rojas | Columbia Global Centers". globalcenters.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2022-03-20.
  6. ↑ "Maisa Rojas". dgf.uchile.cl. Retrieved 2022-03-20.
  7. ↑ Natalia A. Ramos Miranda and Fabian Cambero (21 January 2022), 'Something has changed': young, female-led Cabinet reflects Chile's modern twist Reuters.
  8. ↑ Letter to Parties and Observers, 16 November 2022 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
  9. ↑ Jake Spring and Valerie Volcovici (7 December 2022), After U.N. climate deal, 'loss and damage' funding two years off Reuters.
  10. ↑ Watts, Jonathan (8 July 2023). "Climate scientist Maisa Rojas: 'I have a mandate to be part of Chile's first ecological, feminist government'". The Guardian. London, United Kingdom. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
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