Christa Owens

Christa Owens is an associate at Rocky Mountain Institute, where she supports the electricity practice and the buildings practice. Christa joined RMI in August 2014.

Christa joins RMI from Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, where she earned a master’s degree in environmental management. Her graduate studies focused on energy, climate change, and international development. For her master’s project, she investigated food access in Dallas, Texas. Prior to graduate school, she studied political science at Carleton College, natural resource management in the Brazilian Amazon, and environmental justice in post-Katrina New Orleans.

Christa has extensive experience in international climate change negotiations, having participated in four Conferences of the Parties (COPs) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Most recently, she led the Duke graduate student delegation to COP19 in Warsaw, Poland, providing support to small island states and the least developed countries group.