Cambridge MPhil Climate Change and Policy Supplemental Essay Example: Research Pathway (Score 93)

This MPhil enables me to formalise the link between quantitative finance and climate policy, building on my applied project evaluating transition finance mechanisms for Ghana's energy sector. Unlike my personal statement, which traces my broader motivation, this field specifies course elements central to one aim: robust policy evaluation. Modules in climate-change economics and quantitative methods for climate policy will sharpen my econometric and scenario-modelling skills, while applied policy analysis aligns directly with my experience drafting a transition finance memo and conducting financial analysis of climate-linked instruments. For a forward project I plan to assess whether blended finance accelerates renewable energy uptake across Ghanaian districts, combining difference-in-differences estimation on Energy Commission sectoral data with stakeholder interviews. The key identification threat—non-random allocation of concessional capital—would be addressed through an instrumental-variable strategy exploiting variation in donor disbursement timing.