Adriana Rodríguez Rivera

Why did you choose your program(s) at IE University?

At first I wanted to be a doctor, but during my last year of high school I realised that biology wasn’t for me and I lost the motivation to pursue this profession. I remember sitting down with my parents one evening and asking the question: what can I study that would have a positive impact on our society?

I had studied my last three years of high school in Beijing, China, where I was exposed to unprecedented socio-economic experiences compared to my previous 15 years of life in Madrid: high poverty and economic inequality, unliveable levels of pollution, and a completely different governance system and, overall, way of life. In China, I attended an international school where I was exposed to different cultures and where I met other young and activist students that had spent their lives moving around the world and had a high awareness of global political events. Our school also framed social volunteering and NGO work as a priority in our studies.

This is how I became acquainted with politics and its importance in driving the direction of our planet and society’s well-being. Everything that surrounds us is politics. When I sat down with my parents  and I asked the key question, they said – “Well, you don’t want to be a doctor, ok. But you know what is key in enabling the jobs of doctors (and many other essential services)? Politics.” Politics decides how much public money goes to doctors and how health systems should be organized, whether they are public, hybrid, or private… And so I was convinced. I found that IE had a new international relations program (which is basically a synonym of international politics) combined with law (which is key to understand the nitty-gritty of policies), I applied, and I got in.

How did your experience at IE University prepare you for your professional career? What competitive advantage did it provide you?

There are three strengths I always highlight about my studies at IE University. First, the high-quality professors, who had extensive experience in international organizations, politics and/or academia. Their experiences and knowledge were what made classes interesting for me and made me pay attention and be motivated to succeed. Their interest in building an academic relation with their students, meeting after class to discuss essays, exams, and even extra-curricular activities, really made a difference in my learning experience.

Second, the importance that the IE program gave to practical and analytical knowledge. We weren’t pressured to memorize endless pages that we would forget one year later. Instead, we were pushed to think outside of the box, helping us learn what it means to write an analytical article with good theory-making and argumentation, or to create visual and compelling presentations. These are the skills that professional life actually requires. In my day-to-day job I don’t have to memorize, but instead I have to read, analyze, and produce some form of output that reflects my learnings and recommendations.

Third, the approach to focus not just on grades but also on extra-curricular activities. At IE University we had plenty of opportunities to join an association, a magazine, or other activities to put into practice what we learn in class. For a while I was the president of the Philanthropic Club, through which I organized events and fundraisers for social causes like the 2015 Syrian refugee crisis. I also joined the university newspaper where we covered international events, and I ended up founding together with a group of students the international relations magazine RAIA Group. All these initiatives helped me build the necessary skills that I would then have to apply in my job, and they were key in making my CV look “different” to potential employers.

Describe your current professional role. What is your day-to-day like?

At Climate Strategy, I am currently leading a Spanish-based project where we are working with a network of 20 business associations, labor unions, and NGOs to accelerate the ecological transition of small and medium businesses (SMEs). We began this project in 2022 and since then we have been in direct or indirect contact with 1,000+ SMEs and we have launched two reports at COP27 (Egypt) and COP28 (UAE). In November 2023, we also launched a Pact with 20 entities to boost training and finance programs for SME climate action. We estimate that in 2024 the Pact signatories will lead to 140+ support actions for 28,000+ Spanish SMEs.

For this kind of project, the day-to-day depends on the phase in which we are in. Every year we begin with creating the project description: what our objectives are (e.g. increase climate action in SMEs), the actions we need to take to reach them (e.g. trainings, network-building, influencing policy), the stakeholders that can help us achieve our objectives (government and private actors), the key performance indicators (which will help us understand if our objectives are being met) and the outputs we need to produce to pursue such impact (e.g. a report that provides recommendations or an event that raises awareness).

Then we usually go into a communication phase in which we need to build our alliances with key stakeholders. During this time, we also go into research mode, to then use the summer to write a report that showcases our learnings from the project and recommendations to support our objectives. And finally, once we finalize this report, we need to communicate our recommendations and results to actually have an impact – whether that is meeting with the government to convince them to change a policy or convincing private actors to take a specific stance or action that will support SMEs. Here is where the alliances that we built previously come in handy (like the Pact we launched last year).

To summarize, key tasks are: strategy-making, outreach and communications, networking and alliance-building, research and writing, and event management.

You recently participated in COP28 in Dubai, during which you shared the results of a project you have been working on. Can you tell us more about this achievement and your experience at the conference in general?

I travelled to COP28 to present two projects that are quite related. First, to present the report and the Pact of our SME project (which I mentioned before) during the International Chamber of Commerce’s first official day dedicated to SMEs at a COP. Our aim was to showcase that SMEs are an important lever for a just transition – which is a key program at COP – and to highlight our project in Spain as a case study and good practice for other countries that are looking for ways to mobilize SMEs. As I explain in this article for Diario Responsable: SMEs contribute to 50% of global employment, so putting SMEs in the center of the equation for the ecological transition means taking into account half of the world’s population. Our Pact with 20 organizations looks to do exactly this, by raising awareness about the importance of more local support and policy incentives to empower SMEs in their transition.

Another project I presented at COP28 together with Club de Madrid and former Costa Rican President, Carlos Alvarado, was a working paper we have put together with nine global companies on good practices and recommendations to drive a just transition in supply chains. Here SMEs also play a central role, as they make up at least more than 50% of a large company’s supply chain. So greater engagement, transparency, and innovation are needed. The final paper will be launched this April.

Overall, being at COP is quite an energizing experience that provides some hope in a world where, unfortunately, current policies and actions are not enough to respect our planetary boundaries and ensure a safe future for my generation and others to come. Scientists and experts were not happy with the results of COP28. The failure to include a "phase-out" in the final text is a missed opportunity, which some scientists have claimed to be a “tragedy for the planet and our future.” 

But to all my international relations colleagues out there (who are used to studying the failures of international forums in dealing with conflict, inequality, and famines): we should not lose hope. Although they don’t move at the pace that the planet requires, the COP processes are still key to bring all countries to the table, maintain global collaboration towards zero emissions, and exert pressure on the laggards. And they are key to bringing everyone fighting against the climate emergency together once a year to build alliances and synergies. Among the record 100K attendees in Dubai last year were ambitious citizens, NGOs, and clean businesses that are fighting every day to make our society cleaner, safer, and more fair.

To cover for the insufficient ambition of the COP outcomes, and to guarantee a more ambitious execution of whatever is agreed, these are the kind of people and businesses that governments should empower. Only by enabling and supporting their relentless work can we hopefully move faster than our anarchic world order that keeps prioritizing the dirty industries of the past.

You also recently returned to IE to participate in a panel discussion featuring young professionals in sustainability during which we discussed the many career paths that exist in this field. What are the main pros and cons of the policy career path?

As can be understood from my answer to the previous question: on the one hand, working in climate and energy can be frustrating, because governments and private actors don’t move as fast as the planet requires us to.  The COP28 global stocktake is unequivocal: the world is dangerously off-course to reach the 1.5ºC goal from the Paris Agreement. Under current national commitments, the earth will warm by an estimated 2.4-2.7 degrees centigrade by 2100. So, for those of us talking to governments and businesses every day to make things move faster, frustration and pessimism are common.

But the benefits of this career definitely outweigh the “costs”: every day you wake up and go to the office feeling that you will contribute, more or less that day, to a cleaner, safer, and more just future for everyone. Every effort you make in your day-to-day, however boring it may seem (like cold-calling every day 100 business associations to organize awareness campaigns) is contributing to the bigger mission of protecting our humanity and planet. And after one year, you will be able to see that your project may have helped 400 companies to be more sustainable, and that two years after this is 1,000 companies, and so on. Many times I hear my young friends being demotivated with their jobs, because they don’t see a social or impactful purpose behind it. Fortunately, the green transition will lead to a job market that is centred around impactful work that caters for the desires of younger generations that want to contribute to a better world.

What advice would you give to IE University students and alumni who are looking to pursue a career in your field? How can they get their foot in the door?

Apart from choosing seminars and courses that will teach you about the climate and energy sector, I encourage you to take advantage of the extra-curricular opportunities that IE offers to put into practice this knowledge and showcase your interest in the sector. This could be organizing fundraisers for climate projects, or events to raise awareness, or joining a magazine where you can research and write about climate topics, and like this also learn and keep yourself informed of the latest events.

Outside of your academic and professional interests, what motivates you in life?

I am also very happy with my job because I have flexibility and I have a good professional-personal live balance. After work I usually go to yoga, or I go climbing with friends. I find that being able to disconnect in the evenings is key to be more productive and creative the next day. So, try to find a job that respects this balance, although I know unfortunately this is difficult in today’s (unfair) labor market. In this situation, as young workers, we need to find the courage and strength to put limits that are healthy for us. I am still working on this too.

Name one thing you can’t live without and explain why.

I think the above answers this question! Friends, sports… and good food!

Share something most people don’t know about you.

I am very transparent… so everyone knows everything about me.

If your former classmates and teachers could give you a superlative award, what would it be? For example: “Best person to have in a group” or “Most likely to play devil’s advocate in class”

I won the “most opinionated” of my class award… In one way this is good because knowing how to express your thoughts and having initiative is very useful to make yourself valuable at work. But also, over time (and many in-class debates on politics) I have learned that knowing to listen and how to debate is key, especially in a fragmented and polarized world where you need to convince people of your ideas, and this may require to change your narrative and approach in discussing something that has (unfortunately) become so political as the climate transition.