News

Adv. M. Hafijul Islam Khan (Hafij Khan), PhD candidate in the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development under the leadership of Prof. Prateep Nayak and Dr. Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger, has been elected as an Alternate Member of the Paris Agreement Implementation and Compliance Committee (PAICC). In this role, he plays a pivotal part in facilitating the Paris Agreement’s adoption, adherence and compliance as a climate change negotiator and the alternate member of PAICC. The prestigious appointment recognizes his longstanding leadership and expertise in international climate change law and governance, particularly in the area of loss and damage associated with climate change.

The Faculty of Environment is delighted to welcome Dr. Adwoa Appiah as the newest professor in the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development (SEED). Starting this February, Dr. Appiah will bring her extensive expertise in sustainable finance, ESG integration, and the role of financial institutions in advancing sustainable development to the school. 

As climate risks intensify and demand for a resilient financial system grow, aligning academic research with initiatives driven by the business and financial sector has become crucial. To help advance our understanding and solutions, the Institute for Sustainable Finance (ISF) has announced Dr. Julie Bernard as one of this year’s research fellows.

In recent news, Juan Moreno-Cruz, a professor in the Faculty of Environment’s SEED department, was featured in Canada's National Observer, speaking about the impact of Lithium-ion batteries on battery storage.

Congratulations to Juan Moreno-Cruz, a professor in the Faculty of Environment’s SEED department, on their findings on AI's energy usage. Contrary to popular belief, new research finds that the use of artificial intelligence has a minimal effect on global greenhouse gas emissions and may actually benefit the environment and the economy.

SEED and the Faculty of Environment are thrilled to share that Professor Komal Habib received the Best Presenter Award at the World Resources Forum in Geneva, Switzerland (September 2025) for her talk on “Critical Minerals for Electromobility in Canada.”

The University of Waterloo’s Lumet – Illuminating Metal Supply Chains project has secured an additional $50,000 in collaborative funding through a new joint grant with researchers at University College London (UCL). The boost builds on Lumet’s existing $1 million NSERC Alliance Missions grant (2024-2027), bringing fresh momentum to efforts that aim to make supply chains for critical minerals such as nickel, germanium and lithium more transparent, responsible and resilient.

The School of Environment, Enterprise and Development is delighted to introduce Professor Julie Bernard, who brings her expertise in sustainable finance as part of the SEED faculty starting January 2025. Professor Bernard’s research centers on sustainable finance, responsible investment, and shareholder activism, with a focus on the integration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria and their role in addressing climate change.

This talk traces the implications of fisheries policy-making and management decisions on research and monitoring practices with a view to offering insights on the potential strengths and limitations of the evidence base for fisheries management. It then “turns the telescope around” so to speak and considers how data collected as part of fisheries monitoring programs typically contributes to decision-making in practice and the extent to which most fisheries management decisions are data-driven, evidence-based and transparent in nature. The talk draws from the Canadian experience but seeks to offer perspectives on fisheries management structures and practices more generally.

Title of the Webinar: Connecting data to Fisheries Decision-Making and Policy: Observations from A Practitioner in the field
Date: Oct 27, 2023 (Friday)
Time: 12:00 PM UTC to 1:15 PM UTC (8:00 AM EDT to 9:15 AM EDT - 1:00 PM WAT to 2:15 PM WAT - Convert to your local time here)
Speaker: Trevor M. Swerdfager| Practitioner-In-Residence, School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability & Fellow, Balsillie School of International Affairs, Faculty of Environment, University of Waterloo

YouTube link (watch this webinar live and participate in its Q&A session)