Choyon Kumar Saha is a PhD candidate in Global Governance program at the Balsillie School of International Affairs through the University of Waterloo. His core research interests center on climate policy and politics, environmental policy and governance, and energy geopolitics. His doctoral research will explore the role of Least Developed Countries in tackling the climate crisis through contributing to the burgeoning global efforts to wind down fossil fuel supply. His past research, which was funded by the Ocean Frontier Institute of Canada, explored that how the context of political economy has been played a pivotal role in the emergence and evolution of transnational environmental certification schemes and standards, which are designed with numerous principles to govern the global aquaculture sector more sustainably. His works also underlined human dimensions of natural disasters and climate change, brick kilning industry’s effects on the environment, and the contribution of social safety net policies to poverty eradication.

Choyon has held various positions in academia over the past five years, most recently as a faculty member in sociology at Jagannath University. He also served as an associate coordinator for research and advocacy in Unnayan Shamannay, one of the leading think tanks in Bangladesh, where he involved in developing and executing policy-oriented projects examining the creation of employment and livelihood opportunities in poverty-prone regions, financed by Concern Worldwide and Irish Aid Department of Foreign Affairs. Prior to joining this organization, he spent over a couple of years as a research officer/associate in various projects run by development partners and universities. Recently, he has worked as an intern with the Western Environment Center on exploring the potential policies to build an environmental mandate social enterprise in Western Newfoundland.

Before embarking on his doctoral studies, Choyon pursued an MA in Environmental Policy at Memorial University of Newfoundland after obtaining his master and bachelor’s degrees in Sociology from the University of Dhaka. His research has published in various peer-reviewed journals such as Poverty & Public Policy, Natural Hazards, International Journal of Environmental Studies and Asian Geographer. He is highly passionate about exploring the dynamics of energy geopolitics and its governance mechanisms in the age of the Anthropocene.