Dr Paola Sakai

Profile

Paola Sakai is an economist with over 8 years of experience specialising in climate in climate change adaptation and resilience research in developing and developed contexts at the University of Leeds, where she also was awarded her doctorate.  She is an expert on the economic impacts of flooding on SMEs. She investigated the 2015 Boxing Day Floods in the Calderdale Borough, UK, and her results were used by the Flooding Commision of the Council as well as the UK House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee as evidence on the impact of flooding on SMEs. She has also examined the flood risk mitigation strategies that this type of organisations can take, and sent evidence to the enquiry launched by the House of Commons Environment Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee. She has investigated the interfase between flooded SMEs and the insurance sector, and undertook an innovative project with the insurance industry and Local Authorities across Yorkshire and the Humber to increase the flood resilience of SMEs achieving a great impact. Her other expertise lies in cities where she has focused on collaborative urban strategic planning to tackle the climate change challenge. She is part of the Climate Resilient Cities initiative where she led a successful project about how three cities in three different countries could cooperate to enable climate-resilient development (Triangle-city). Among the legacies of the project was to enable the creation of the first Trinational Economic and Sustainable Development Council in Latin America (CODETRI) which is pushing to work together for a sustainable region. She is part of the Climate Smart Cities team where she modelled the CO2 emissions of the transport and waste sectors in Lima Peru; and was an advisor of the CSC in Calgary, Canada. She has also experience in climate services as she has examined how the UK water sector used climate change information to make adaptation decisions.

Paola was awarded a prestigious UKRI Research and Innovation Fellowship where she is developing the strategic case for enabling collaborative action to build resilience in critical infrastructure at a city scale, exploring the synergies between disaster risk reduction and improvements in productivity, economic growth, employment, environmental quality, and human well-being. This research will focus on the Leeds city area, seeking to draw lessons that can be applied more broadly to other cities in the UK and abroad. The research is directly informing and leading the Climate Resilience Working Group of the Leeds Climate Commission. She has been ensuring a strong stakeholder engagement to maximise policy uptake, increase climate resilience and the economic productivity of UK industries, and produce a positive impact on the lives of the UK cities' inhabitants, and beyond. Her results are being tested in the Strategic Health Asset Planning and Evaluation tool of PHE to enable cross-council collaborative strategic planning towards increasing the climate resilience, health, well-being and development of Leeds. 

Paola’s latest research strand is on innovation for sustainable food systems. In the UK, she has created a Public Private Research and Innovation Partnership to explore cutting-edge technologies to produce food that is nutritious, climate-resilient, clean and just. She is focusing on geothermal mine water energy systems in controlled environments (vertical farms, glasshouses) to produce nutritious food. Her Food for Our Own Good project is examining ways in which sustainable entrepreneurs could channel this healthy food to schools, care homes, hospitals, and food banks to encourage a business ecosystem that fuels a resilient, clean and kind food system. In Brazil, she also investigated the use of alternative bioenergy crops in small-scale farming communities to increase their welfare while also considering policy perspectives to advance overall Sustainable Development Goals.

She is also a lecturer in Financial Mathematics in the Faculty of Economics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico since 2004, and since 2009 she teaches online.

Current projects and funding 

•    PI – Policy Fund Support. Food for Our Own Good: harnessing geo-energy for a clean, climate-resilient, just and healthy food system in Leeds (£23,078, 2022-2022). Explored the barriers and enablers of food production using geothermal mine water systems to produce food in vertical farms and glasshouses and channel this healthy food to schools, care homes, hospitals, and food banks.

•    PI -Michael Beverly Innovation Fellowship. ‘Food for Our Good’ explores subsurface solutions to increase the resilience of the Leeds food system. Funded by the University of Leeds Alumni (£10,000, 2021-ongoing). This project aims to create a public-private research and innovation partnership that will explore cutting-edge technologies to produce food that is nutritious, climate-resilient, clean and just. We will focus on geothermal sources to heat glasshouses and vertical farms to produce nutritious food. We will examine ways in which sustainable entrepreneurs could channel this healthy food to schools, care homes, hospitals, and food banks to encourage a business ecosystem that fuels a resilient, clean and kind food system. 

•    Co-I, Implementing Urban Agroecology as Green Infrastructure to increase socio-economic resilience in the face of climate change. Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila, Mexico (£2,000, 2020-2021). This project is to develop collaborations and provide training to Mexican students on this topic.

•    Deputy PI, Environmental science to promote public health and wellbeing in the Climate Emergency. Funded by NERC through iCASP (£170,000, 2020-ongoing). Co-I of a project that aims to integrate environmental data and a tool that I produced in a web system and work with Public Health of the Leeds City Council and other Departments to enhance climate-resilient decision-making in the Climate Emergency declared by the Leeds City Council. This project is to produce policy impact.

•    Co-I, Improving flood risk communication through engagement tools. NERC through iCASP (£123,884, 2020-ongoing). Co-I of a project that aims to deliver engagement tools to promote resilient behaviours in communities vulnerable to flooding across Yorkshire. This project is to produce impact.

•    PI, Bridging gaps to boost SMEs resilience: Closing the knowledge gap between Local Authorities, insurers, lenders and surveyors on the economic impacts of flooding and resilience efforts of SMEs. Funded by the Natural Environment Research Council through the Yorkshire Integrated Catchment Solutions Programme (£250,000, 2019-2021). PI of a project that aims to increase the flood resilience of SMEs by co-developing two tools with and for WYCA, EA, Flood risk managers of Yorkshire and the Humber, and the insurance industry. One tool is to assess the economic costs of flooding on SMEs so Authorities enhance their business cases; and the other one is to assess the effectiveness of SMEs' flood resilience so lenders, insurers, surveyors and brokers unlock insurance and lending processes for SMEs. This project produced social/policy impact, and two papers are in preparation.

•    Co-I, Yorkshire Future Flood Resilience Pathfinder. Funded by EA (£574,000, Leeds share £185,000, 2019-ongoing). Co-I of a project that aims to increase the effective uptake of PFR across the Yorkshire Regional Flood and Coastal Committee (YRFCC) area. communities, planning and construction professionals, the construction industry and the insurance sector to deliver behaviour change that will lead to the increase in the usage of property flood resilience measures (PFR) across the Yorkshire Regional Flood and Coastal Committee (YRFCC) area. This project is to produce a social impact.

•    PI, Water efficiency standards for new developments. NERC through iCASP (£2.000, 2019). PI of a project where evidence was gathered evidence for the Leeds City Council for adopting a policy on water efficiency standard. The evidence was taken into account and the policy has full policy weighting in the determination of new planning applications in Leeds. This project was to produce policy impact.

•    Co-I, The economic development and social welfare of smallholder farmers in Parana, Brazil. Funded by the British Academy (£120,000, 2018-2020). Co-investigator of a project that investigated the use of current and alternative bioenergy crops in small-scale farming communities to increase their welfare while also considering policy perspectives to advance overall Sustainable Development Goals. This project sought to produce two papers.

•    Deputy PI, UK-Brazil workshop on financing climate-resilient development in small and medium-sized cities. British Academy Newton Fund (£50,000, 2018). Funding to organise a week-long workshop to build links between early career researchers between the UK and Brazil. This project was to develop research links.

•    PI -UKRI Research and Innovation Fellowship. The Economics and Financing of Resilient Urban Infrastructure. Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (£417,310, 2018-2021, success rate: 27%). I was awarded a UKRI Research and Innovation fellowship to focus on developing the economic case for investing in resilient urban infrastructure at a city scale, exploring the synergies between disaster risk reduction and improvements in health, well-being, and inclusive growth. This project is to produce policy impact and journal articles.

•    Deputy PI, Triangle-City Cooperation: building climate resilience in the Parana basin. Climate Compatible Development Network (CDKN), International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Fundación Futuro Latinoamericano (FFLA) (USD$456,070, 2016-2018, success rate: 5%). Co-investigator of the Triangle City Cooperation project which aimed to achieve climate-compatible development in transboundary basins. Three cities were selected for this: Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, Foz de Iguacu, Brazil, and Puerto Iguazu, Argentina. We conducted vulnerability assessments of the three cities and through participatory approaches, the project is providing evidence of solutions that can be implemented to reduce climate risks and create development in 3 cities in 3 countries. I am the lead researcher coordinating a team of 3 partner organisations, and 8 research assistants situated in the three countries. I liaise with ONU-Habitat, National and Local governments to apply to the Adaptation Fund (https://triangle-city.leeds.ac.uk/). This project was strongly focused on impact, and numerous outputs were produced, e.g. policy briefs, reports, newsletters, information sheets, journal articles, and events.

•    PI, Can ‘Flood Re’ increase the resilience of small businesses? Investigating flood insurance and other strategies to move forward. ESRC Centre for Climate change Economics and Policy (CCCEP): Innovation Fund (£10,000, 2016-2018). This project was to produce policy impact. I gathered evidence on the financial and practical means that small businesses have to manage the impacts of flooding, and the alternative strategies are available for them to reduce flood risk. The analysis of quantitative and qualitative data was presented in a reaction workshop, and it was written in the form of a report and sent to an EFRA Parliamentary call for evidence.

•    PI, Economic Assessment of the 2015/16 Winter floods in Calderdale. ESRC Centre for Climate change Economics and Policy (CCCEP) (£2,000, 2016). I obtained a grant to conduct an Economic Assessment of the 2015 Boxing Day floods on SMEs in the Calderdale Borough. I developed a partnership with the Calderdale Council and a local NGO, which helped advertise the online survey that I developed. The outcome was a joint report which was used by the Flooding Commission of the Calderdale Council to seek funding for the implementation of flood level protection. Also, it was used as evidence by the UK House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee and the Calderdale Flood Commission. This project was to produce practical knowledge.

•    Co-I, Streaming: Getting the Social into Flood Policy. ESRC Festival of Social Science. Leeds, (£1,450, 2016)

•    Co-I, Researchers in Development Conference series. Leeds Social Science Institute (£1,000, 2013 & 2012).

•    Fieldwork grant for PhD project. Sustainability Research Institute, University of Leeds (£1,500, 2011).

•    Young talented academics award: Beca Olmeca. National Autonomous University of Mexico (£19,000, 2009-2012).

•    PhD Scholarship. National Council on Science and Technology, Mexico. (2009-2013).
 

Responsibilities

• Module leader of Contemporary Economics -MSc Sustainable Business Leadership

Research interests

Qualifications

• Doctor of Philosophy, University of Leeds
• BSc (Hons) Economics, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)
• BSc Business Administration, Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM)
• Graduate Diploma in Stock Finance, Mexico Autonomous Institute of Technology (ITAM)
• Graduate Diploma in Planning, Programming and Budgeting (UNAM)

Professional memberships

• Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy (CCCEP) – Associate Researcher
• Global Food and Environment Institute -Research Associate
• Priestley International Centre for Climate – - Research Associate
• Water@Leeds – Research Associate
• UK-Brazil Resilience Research Network -Co-founder and Research Associate
• Frontiers in Sustainability Journal – Sustainable Organisations - Review Editor
• Weather and Health Impact Cross-Council group of Public Health of the Leeds City Council - Member
• Air Pollution and Health board of the Leeds City Council - Member
• Mine Energy Task force -Member
• Healthier & Resilient Food Systems Network -Public Health England -Member

Student education

I am the module leader of the Contemporary Economics module which is part of the MSc in Sustainable Business Leadership. I work with Digital Education Services to select the best innovative approaches to enhance student education and develop material derived from my research (videos, interactives, webinars, podcasts) to integrate this into my research-lead teaching.

Research groups and institutes

• Sustainability Research Institute
• Business Organisations for Sustainable Societies
• Climate Change Adaptation, Vulnerability and Services
• water@leeds
• Geosolutions Leeds