Daniela Baeza Breinbauer

Daniela is pursuing a PhD in Environmental Economics at LSE’s Department of Geography and Environment, and is funded by a Grantham Research Institute PhD Scholarship. Her research focuses on complex climate risk and adaptation for resilience. Specifically, her research uses Bayesian Network Analysis to quantify interactions between drivers of complex climate risk to food security across Eastern Africa.

Her research is motivated by the need for novel early warning systems, and the value of a Systems Approach in quantifying synergies and trade-offs between adaptive responses. Beyond spatial and cross-sector trade-offs of adaptive measures, her research is predictive in nature and also seeks to assess temporal trade-offs—recognizing that reductions in risk in one area or time-period may interact with changes in risk in another.

More simply, Daniela intends to investigate the web of socioeconomic interactions by connecting understandings of possible responses to complex risks using both ‘zoomed-in’ views and ‘zoomed-out’ investigations, plugging the former into a systems approach to understand how they might work under different conditions.

Background

Prior to commencing her PhD, Daniela was a Project Manager and Researcher at LSE Consulting, where she founded and led LSE Consulting’s Food Systems and Security Hub (FSSH). She was also a Senior Fellow at the Institute on Science for Global Policy. Across both, she oversaw projects in the fields of Food Security; Environmental Economics; Development Economics; and Human Rights. She has led and contributed to projects for a variety of government and non-government institutions including the UN FAO, World Food Programme, WWF, GAIN, Welthungerhilfe, GIZ, European Commission, European Parliament, U.S. Government, the Economist Intelligence Unit, and the Government of India, among others.

Daniela holds an MSc Environmental Economics (2021) from LSE, an MSc International Development Management – Applied Development Economics Specialism (2017) from LSE, and a B.A. International Relations – Human Rights Law specialism (2015) from Eckerd College. With the aim of bridging her theoretical and practical understanding in food systems, she was also recently awarded an Advanced Diploma in Agriculture and Farming Systems (2023) from Capel Manor College.

Key research interests

• Complex climate risk
• Food and water security
• Early warning systems
• Sustainable development